


Problems of the Heart

by Citrus_Twist



Series: 99 Problems [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: BillDip, Human bill, M/M, Mild Gore, Other, bara buff daddy!Dipper, freckled!bill, older!Pines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-03-20 00:48:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 62,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3630447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citrus_Twist/pseuds/Citrus_Twist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grunkle Stan has a heart attack, Dipper is having strange dreams, and Mabel keeps throwing Dipper at customers. So what happens when Bill offers Dipper a deal?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Have You Found It?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey ya'll! Although it is currently rated teen, it will be explicit in further chapters for both sexual content and potentially gore as well, although I'll try and keep the ladder down on that one. The story is currently unbeta'd because I'm lazy and don't want to throw this at people, so just expect some errors here and there. 
> 
> Also, note that there are spoilers in here, so definitely finishing watching the show before you read this!
> 
> If you want to find me my blog is CitrusMewTwist.tumblr.com. Thanks a bunch, and I hope you enjoy!

Dipper tapped his Foot on the linoleum floor worrying at his lip and sighing. Mabel rolled her eyes at him and patted his arm.

“Dipper, Grunkle Stan is going to be fine.” Mabel said. Dipper didn’t fail to notice her nervous squint and chuckle. They were in the hospital waiting room, waiting to hear how Grunkle Stan was fairing. He’d had a heart attack out of the blue. Well, okay, not exactly out of the blue. He had insisted on repairing damage to the Mystery Shack by himself, the large ‘S’ that was constantly Falling off. He was older now, and it was too much stress.

Dipper sighed again, “I know, Mabel. Grunkle Stan has the strongest constitution of  anyone I know, it’s just...I guess I never really expected to not have him around, you know?” He settled in the seat next to her. Mabel gave him a sad smile.

“Yeah.” She said, brushing her shoulder with his, "So it's good we won't have to, because fine is what he's going to be!"

It was weird to think about, how much time had passed since their first summer in Gravity Falls. So much had happened- between Gideon’s attempt to rewrite their fate and gain propriety over the entire town, and Bill’s attempt to merge their universe with the Dreamscape, well...things never really settled down in Gravity Falls.

It had been 11 years. It was difficult to wrap his mind around that. Life took an interesting turn for them. They returned to Gravity Falls every summer and when they were sixteen, convinced their parents to let them live in the paranormal town with Grunkle Stan and Grandpa Lee. Somehow, it had become home. More than Piedmont, more even, than their parents.

Dipper had gotten very heavily into wrestling in his freshman year of high school. He’d bulked up pretty quickly after that. Between the weight lifting, constantly doing work around the shack, joining marching band, and hunting the craziness that was constantly around Gravity Falls, he’d gotten to 210 lbs of muscle before high school was over.

Of course, Mabel had completely outgrown him in height. She was just under 6 feet tall to his 5”7’. She joined him in his marching band antics, learning percussion and falling in love with the timpani.

They had both gotten scholarships to schools in Oregon. They went to a small school close by and decided to commute, so they could help Grunkle Stan out around the Mystery Shack. Wendy had left to live in Portland and was working at her cousin’s logging place that was close to the city. Just after they graduated high school, Soos’s father passed away very suddenly and he inherited a lot of stuff. “Can’t tell you more than that dudes. I’d have to kill ya if I did,” he said once, with a laugh. He sent them both gifts and postcards from around the world and made sure to show up for every birthday they had.

They both graduated on time. Dipper got a double major in Mathematics and Parapsychology, while Mabel got a degree in Art and Design. They moved into their own apartment in town and were working at the Mystery Shack while looking for more “permanent” employment, though all three of them knew Grunkle Stan was grooming Mabel to take over the shack.

Everything was looking good. Grandpa Lee had gone on a mission to retrieve something the government stole, meaning Dipper and Mabel were putting in extra hours at the Shack. For some reason, even though both Dipper and Mabel were there, Grunkle Stan insisted he take the ‘S’ up himself and nail it back to the sign. When he got to the top of the stairs he’d had a heart attack.

Both Mabel and Dipper perked up as they saw the doctor coming down the hall. They stood up as she walked started to them.

“So- your Uncle is fine.” Both twins let out a huge breath, “The heart attack was relatively minor, though you’ll have to be careful in the future. He said he hasn’t been under much more stress than normal recently, is that true?” The twins looked at each other. A couple of days ago they had fought off giant eye balls. And before that it was the inside out unicorn.

“Not particularly.” Mabel said with a shrug. The doctor nodded putting her hands together and flashing them a smile.

“Well, that’s good to hear then. He’s in room 18 down the hall, you can go see him now. I’ll be in in just a moment.” she said before leaving. Both twins rushed down the hall as fast as possible with a “don’t run!” from a passing nurse.

Grunkle Stan was watching tv when they came in.

“Grunkle Stan!” Mabel yelled, darting into the room first and tackle hugging him immediately. He gasped in the suddenness of the action and Dipper sighed at her.

“Mabel, we’re suppose to be being careful.” He said. She looked up, teary eyed, gaze flickering between both of them.

“Aww, geez kid, none of that I’m fine. Fit as a fiddle.” Grunkle Stan said even posing, hospital gown and all.

“But Grunkle Stan you just had a heart attack, you can’t be fine after that.” Mabel said, voice quivering. Dipper walked around to Grunkle Stan’s other side.

“Are you kidding? Look at him, he hasn’t aged a single year from when we were kids.” Dipper said reassuringly, though it was true. He looked almost exactly the same.

“Hey, hey! These wrinkles don’t grow themselves. A couple of them are new, I’ll have you know.” Both the twins laughed. Mabel snuggled into her spot, her head on their Grunkle’s chest.

“So...do you know how long you’re suppose to be here for?” Dipper asked. He sat down and leaned against his Grunkle’s bed.

“Just a couple of days, so they can measure the extent of everything.” Grunkle said.

“A couple of days?” Mabel started, “Well...me and Dipper can run the Mystery Shack until then, so don’t worry about that.” Grunkle Stan snorted, and patted Mabel’s head.

“Yeah yeah, kid, I’m not worried. Look, I know this seems bad and everything, but don’t go treating me like I’m some delicate flower now, alright?”

“Actually, they should be,” The doctor knocked on their door, “Knock knock.”

“Oh sheesh, you again.” Grunkle Stan grumbled.

“Grunkle Stan! That’s not very nice to say to the person that saved your life!” Mabel said. She turned immediately to the doctor, sticking out her hand, “I’m Mabel, Stan’s great-niece. And this is my brother Dipper.” Dipper gave a small wave.

“Oh I wouldn’t say that, it was nothing. Doctor Turner.” The woman said, shaking Mabel’s hand, “and I’m here to give some information to your great-niece and great-nephew.”

“Ohhhh, what kind of information?” Mabel asked with wide eyes.

“Well, just a few things you need to make sure Mr. Pines is doing to keep another heart attack from happening.” Doctor Turner said with a smile.

It was just basic stuff. He needed to take aspirin, start on medicine to lower his cholesterol, no long term working for 4-6 weeks, and no heavy exercise for 3-6 months.

“Does that mean sex? What about sex?” Grunkle Stan asked, more to embarrass his family and annoy the doctor than anything else.

They left soon after that, wanting to give Grunkle Stan some peace and quiet. Besides they were both concocting a plan that they’d need to enact before Stan got out of the hospital.

Dipper drove them back to their apartment, neither of them talking much. They were both exhausted from the day’s excitement and, and seeing as it was close to 2 am, they were all but ready to collapse.

“Talk about moving back into the Mystery Shack in the morning?” Dipper asked as they got into their pajamas.

“I like the way your mind works, oh brother of mine!” Mabel said as she scooted into bed, Dipper smiling at the reference.

“Sleep well, Mabel.”

“Sleep well, Dipper.”

 

Dipper was in his college dorm room. Sam Mullen was sleeping on the other side of the room, odd because they’d never been roommates...or not like that anyway. They were never technically roommates, even if they did share a bed almost every night his junior year of college.

Still, that wasn’t what was important. The important part was outside his room. He just had to get out there without waking up Sam, because if Sam woke up everything would be ruined. He tip toed outside closing the door quietly behind him. He saw Mabel’s door across the hall, smiling at the triangle stickers all over the door. One sticker, yellow with bold letter posed, “Have You Found It?”

He turned right, following some intuition on where to go. There was a door there, room 618. He tried the knob only to find it locked. Fear shot through him- it wasn’t suppose to be locked. That- that wasn’t good, what was going to happen?

He tried jiggling the door knob more aggressively before he heard a slam down the hallway. Turning in horror, he looked toward his own room where a towering needle-thin beast was standing outside of his door, head and upper body bent, too tall for the roof. The thing immediately turned its head towards Dipper.

Dipper stayed still, staring in shock and horror as its limbs twitched and jittered like a dead insect. He hardly breathed as it stared back without blinking, its eyes white saucers with pinprick pupils. It’s head twitched once before it’s pupils blew wide, and with a gasp, Dipper shot down the hallway just as the creature opened its mouth. A black tongue shot out hitting the spot Dipper had just been standing in as he raced to and down the staircase. The creature roared and darted after him.

Dipper took the stairs two at a time, throwing open the door to the main floor. He heard the creature following after him, noise like popping bones echoing through the staircase. He searched around from something to bar the door, taking off the RA’s large, steel-backed bulletin board and shoving it under the door knob, the ‘triangle math’ display falling off.

He immediately stepped backward, only to fall into some unknown pit. His surroundings became blackened and he lost cogniscience.

 

Dipper woke up slowly, not aware of where he was. He swore he could hear a male whispering to him, and with every strive to hear it he came closer to being fully awake, and the whispering retreated further and further away.

He sat up, rubbing at his eyes and yawning. A quick glance at his clock- he was awake just a few minutes before their alarm clock was going to go off. With a sigh, he got out of bed, changing out of his boxer-briefs and sleep shirt and into the Mystery Shack uniform. Luckily he finally fit into the one-size-fits-all shirt, at least width wise. It was too long for his body still. He stubbed his toe on the door on the way out, silently cursing, trying to not wake up Mabel.

This was going to be one hell of a day.

 

Dipper clunked his head against the counter. They had gotten barely anyone today, maybe a dozen people if that. Mabel was handling tours while Dipper manned the register. The work day was practically over anyway. It was only April, no one on vacation would be coming by just yet.

They’d brought most of their stuff over earlier that morning, and Dipper talked with their landlord about ending their lease early. He was understanding, and although no one liked Grunkle Stan, Dipper and Mabel had been good to their landlord Clarence and he treated them kindly in return. There was almost no charge, and they would be out of the apartment by tomorrow.

Dipper sighed leaning back in his chair as the couple that came in browsed the wears, obviously not there to actually buy anything. He could hear Mabel in his head ‘Dipper, you just need to work on your people skills. Anyone is willing to spend money if you try!’ With a sigh, Dipper stood up walking over to the couple. He put on the best smile he could.

“Hello and welcome to the Mystery Shack, where you’ll find the greatest enigma’s Gravity Falls has to offer! Is there anything I can help you find?” He asked enthusiastically. The couple turned from where they were looking at shirts. The young woman immediately started doing that eat-him-with-her-eyes thing. Dipper internally cringed trying to keep eye contact with the young man of the couple instead of the female.

“Actually, yes.” The woman said, turning back to the shirts, “Do you have this in any other color?” The woman bent over pointing to the bottom row of shirts. Dipper rolled his eyes as the woman very purposefully showed her butt off to him. The male portion of the couple noticed this as well, sending a glare at both his girlfriend or whatever, and Dipper.

Forget Mabel’s advice.

“No, I’m afraid we don’t,” Dipper said impatiently, already seeing how this would play out, “was there anything else?”

“When do you give out tours?” she asked, this time perking her boobs, and it was all Dipper could do not to facepalm.

“There’s a tour schedule at the front desk-”

“No, like, when do _you_ give out tours?” she asked, and Dipper really wanted to leave. Both Mabel and Grunkle Stan had taken full advantage of his new physique on attracting tourists and getting them to spend money, and he was not going to stoop that low himself. It made him feel incredibly self conscious.

“I-I don’t give out-”

“He’s giving a-

“AHHH!”

“-tour tomorrow! Aren’t cha Dipper?” Mabel popped from behind him. He turned to his twin with a scowl- both for the scaring and for the impromptu reworking of their normal work schedule.

“Yes! Yes sure, I’m giving out a tour tomorrow.” Dipper huffed. The girl just smiled and giggled.

“Well, that’s great than! I guess we’ll see you tomorrow.” She said, linking her arms with her boyfriend or whatever, and left the store. He glared daggers at Dipper until they were out the door.

“Mabel do you have to do that?” Dipper asked, scowling and crossing his arms. She immediately squeezing his cheeks together.

“Mabel, do you have to make us tons of money? Why, yes Dipper that is the plan!” She mimicked, laughing at herself as Dipper stood there. She started walking to the door, ready to lock the place up.

“Okay then, who is going to move all the furniture? That’s the whole reason you were suppose to take the tour shifts tomorrow, so I could get our dressers and bed frames and everything moved in.”

“Psssshhh, you can just do that when you get off work!” Mabel said, turning the sign to closed with a ‘Bop!’

“No, we’re going to get Grunkle Stan after work and I have to drive because someone here lost her license when she tried to let her pig drive her bug.” Mabel laughed at the memory of that.

“Hehe. Sir Waddington Lesley-chauffeur extraordinaire!” Dipper scoffed and facepalmed. It wasn’t a big deal- he just needed to take a deep breath.

“Okay.” He said, after a few exhales, “I can probably move all the furniture between tours, as long as you can distract people so they don’t get in my way.”

“Yay!” Mabel said jumping onto Dipper’s back and latching on, rubbing her cheek into his hair. He couldn’t help but smile at her cheer and enthusiasm, “Thank you Dipper!” He shook his head, poking her lightly in the side. She laughed at the tickle, retaliating by poking him. It quickly turned into a poking war that lasted the next ten minutes. Mabel was victorious, as always.

They visited Grunkle Stan who complained about just about everything. The tv, the food, the doctors, the weird sentient mold that was growing in the corner of the room and beat him at chess three times that day. The one thing he didn’t complain about was his nurse. The words “hubba hubba” were involved. The mold agreed. Dipper should probably check out what that was…They didn’t tell Stan about moving back in, wanting to keep it a surprise.

Nighttime brought the weird dream back. Everything was the same, his roommate, Mabel’s door, Room 618, the monster, the billboard with the triangle math on it, the fall into darkness. He remembered it better after he woke up this time, and immediately wrote every detail down in the back of a book he had.

The tours were awful. They had tiny sized groups, and the woman from yesterday did show up. Not only that, she came on every single tour Dipper led, as well as watched him while he moved the furniture. As the third tour started and she insisted on getting yet another ticket, her boyfriend or whatever got into a mini fight with her which ended with Mabel going up to them asking ‘Trouble in paradise?’ with her too cheerful voice. The boyfriend or whatever immediately stomped off and out of the place. The woman didn’t really seem to care.

“Sooooo, bro bro. That girl is single. You’re single. Huhh!! What is this!?” Mabel said between one of the tours, after Dipper had hulled her mattress up the stairs, by himself, he might add.

“What, who?” Dipper asked huffing a bit.

“That girl!” Mabel said, pointing. Dipper cringed.

“No way.” He said, walking away to put his mystery suit back on.

“Awwww, but why?” Mabel asked with a pout.

“Mabel, she just broke up with her boyfriend. Or whatever.” Dipper pointed out.

“So what? That just means she’s newly single!” Dipper sighed.

“Well, besides the fact that she only likes me for superficial reasons, I don’t want to date anyone right now.” Dipper said, slipping into his dress shirt.

“Pbbbbt, balderdash! How do you know without at least trying to talk to her?” Mabel asked with a grin. Oh she was doing that thing. That thing with her face. Her eager face. Ugh, he couldn’t resist that.

“Pleaaaaaaaaase?”

“Mabel I- ...alright, _fine_ I’ll try...talking with her-”

“WOO! Yeah! Romance here we come!”

Okay...well, how bad could it go?

Dipper popped his suit once, walking over to where the young woman was standing.

“Sooo...do you live in town?” Dipper asked her as tourists started gathering. The girl popped up her hip.

“Yeah, I’ve been here for a little while now. My mom works at the hospital and I work at the mall.” she offered up, “I’m Tina by the way.” She extended her hand.

“Oh! Um. Dipper.” He said, shaking her hand. He looked behind her to see a small group of people waiting for a tour. It didn’t look like many more were on their way. “Listen do you wanna, I dunno...talk or, or something after the uh. Tour?” She smiled at him.

“Yeah definitely! Are you free for dinner?” She asked, fluttering her eyes a couple times. Ugh.

Dipper would admit that she was generally attractive. Ish. At the end of the day, it was more of a bonus to him, but she just seemed...really artificial.

“Well, hehe...I can’t...because my Uncle just had a heart attack a few days ago.” She grabbed onto his arm.

“Oh noooo, is he okay?” He was a bit shocked by her forwardness. He not so subtly pried her off of him.

“Y-yeaaah, he’s fine. We’re just throwing a small surprise for him when he gets home today.” Dipper said. Tina smiled.

“Hey, be careful with that surprise. Don’t want to scare him into another, right?” Dipper didn’t know whether to laugh or to back away awkwardly. So he did both.

The tour went okay. Tina made awkward jokes through it.

“Heh, Jackolopear- the fruit that can run from your mouth, right?”

And weird passes at his…

“Hey, you know what else has a big horn? You do. Don’t worry I can tell.”

He wasn’t sure which was worse.

When the day was finally over and Dipper had just barely managed to get everything set up, it was time to go pick up Grunkle Stan. Dipper drove there, got all the outpatient paperwork taken care of, with several comments from his Grunkle about body odor and ‘I thought we took care of this problem in high school’ to which Mabel laughed. Dipper attempted scowled for the sake of it, but couldn’t hold back the smile at having his Grunkle Stan back and safe from harm.

When they brought him back, they led him into the living room, where they had a table set up with cake and a banner, “Surprise! You have roommates again!” Grunkle Stan didn’t find it as funny as they hoped, but he did enjoy the cake. He ate all of it.

“You know, I never told you guys you had to leave right?” Grunkle Stan told Dipper as Mabel chased after Waddles. He’d stolen the banner.

“I know, we just thought you might want some space. With Grandpa Lee coming back and having to live with us for so long…” Diper said, trailing off.

“Kid, you guys are my family. We love to hate living with each other, that’s the whole point.” He said, and Dipper felt his face light up. That was as good as it got with Grunkle Stan most of the time, “Now go help your sister get her pig.”

That night, they all stayed up watching terrible horror movies on the Gravity Falls Public Broadcasting. Apparently, My Mummy is a Werewolf got yet another sequel. But, it was amazing to get to spend time with his family. He felt his eyes begin to close just as a commercial came on for whatever Toby was doing now.

 

Dipper was standing in the desert with a sense of deep dread in the pit of his stomach. Moving nervously forward, he looked around his surroundings as he climbed up a sand dune. Pyramids surrounded him- everywhere he looked, in fact, there was a pyramid of varying size in the distance. He reached the height of the dune and gasped at what he saw.

A building with twisted proportions, disturbingly high and narrow stood before him. And even though everything in him said not to enter the building, his insatiable curiosity got the better of him. Looking for a way in the building he came upon a strange 3-pronged symbol that he knew immediately he should not have looked at. The dread that instilled in him welled up like a water balloon left on the facet, and as he felt himself popping-

 

He woke up in a cold sweat.

Dipper was sitting on the couch, Mabel’s feet in his lap, her head on Grunkle Stan’s lap. Dipper tried to remember what he was dreaming of- could only grasp pyramids and the feeling of dread. He knew he saw some symbol, but couldn’t remember what it was. However, he was starting to get suspicious. He’d been dreaming of triangles a lot lately. Triangles meant Bill, and Bill meant nothing good.

Still, it could just be a coincidence. Bill was weirdly subtle, yet obvious. There weren’t any single eyed pyramids in his dreams with bow ties so that meant that it probably was just a coincidence.

Dipper got out his phone to check the time, sighing when it shone as 4:30am. He picked up Mabel with ease, taking her back to their room and tucking her in. He went back to rearrange Grunkle Stan so the man was lying on the couch- the man could sleep through anything. At least Mabel roused a bit when he picked her up.

Then he got out a book and started reading. There was no way he was going to get back to bed after that last dream anyway.


	2. Dipper's Nightmares in Dreamland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya'll are enjoying it so far! As before, this is currently un-beta'd for the most part, so there are likely to be spelling and grammar errors. Chapter two and three are interrelated, and I'll be posting it tomorrow after I review through it a couple more times.
> 
>  
> 
> If you want to find me, my url is citrusmewtwist.tumblr.com
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks a bunch and make sure to comment so I know what ya'll are thinking!

 

Dipper somehow still managed to fall back asleep- only noticing when MabEl woke him up. He was slouched oddly, with a crick in his neck, the book having fell off the body during his slumber.

It was officially Sunday which meant they had the day off. Originally, they were planning to go into the woods and explore for a bit, see what they could find that wasn’t in the journal. They were almost finished with their own addition to the previous 3 journals. It included a few things, like that weird robot guy from when they were kids, as well as Trooth Fairies, Tricornicorns, and that weird tentacle-y thing Mabel found in the shower that once.

Nevertheless, it was Adventures with Mabel day.

Both of them were up earlier than their Grunkle, and they surprised him with breakfast. Which was oatmeal and pills. Though mostly just pills. He grumbled at them and didn’t leave until they watched him take all the medication. He then parked himself in front of the tv and, as they knew from experience, was not going to get up. They made sure he had his remote.

Their day in the forest didn’t pan out anything new- though they had a ton of fun. Very wet fun, after Mabel pushed him into a stream and Dipper proceeded to toss her in. She was going to have to make a new lampshade sweater. They even had a new tour idea.

“So you know that lumberjack legend, the Hide-Behind? Well, Mabel and I thought-”

“We thought that we could attach some rattles to people behind their back during the tour and you could tell them the legend! Wouldn’t that be just the coolest ever!?” Mabel said, hanging upside down from the couch.

“Hmmm. Yeah, that’s not a bad idea kids.” Grunkle Stan said, “Although we’ll need someone pretty sneaky to do that.” He said, rubbing at his chin.

“Oh oh! Me, pick me!”

“Yeaaaah. Someone who was subtle and quiet, especially with rattles.” Dipper said, a smile twitching at his lips, waiting to escape.

“I can do it!”

There was an awkward silence where both men waited for Wendy or Soos or Grandpa Lee to pick up on their teasing and join in on the fun. They shared a look when they realized no one else was around anymore.

They weren’t used to be the only three.

“Awww, come on we all know I’d be the best for it!”

“Wait, why wouldn’t I be able to do it better?” Dipper asked with fake indignation.

“Guhaha, you? Dipper, you’re like, the size of the Hulk! Besides you still trip over your own two feet!” Mabel said, hands on her hips.

“Hey that’s- not...entirely true.”

“Kid, just three days ago you sneezed (‘your adorable kitten sneeze!’) and ended up breaking the table in half.”

“O-okay, when did this become about me?” Dipper said, feeling his ears warm up as his face reddened. So yeah, he was still a little bit clumsy.

“I want to sneak up on them! I’ll be like an unseen ninja!”

“Mabel, that’s kind of the point of a ninja.”

“Alright, Mabel, we’ll give you a shot.” Grunkle Stan relented.

“WOOO!” Mabel jumped in the air, running to their room with a, “I have so much to prepare!”

Both men smiled, Dipper with an additional eye roll, and turned back to the tv.

A comfortable silence surrounded them as Dipper listened half heartedly, paying more attention to the whoops and noises coming from their room for Mabel’s ‘preparing.’ All he knew was that it was going to be like everything Mabel did: completely and mind bogglingly out of this world.

“Kid, can I ask you somethin’?” Grunkle Stan asked, snapping Dipper out of his thoughts.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah of course Grunkle Stan.” Stan waited a moment looking downward.

“What are you afraid of? Ya know, now that you’re an adult and everything.” Dipper looked at him in confusion, not sure what this was about.

“I dunno...Most of the stuff in the journal is pretty terrifying, but I’m guessing that’s not what you meant?” Grunkle Stan shook his head. Dipper gave it some thought letting the silence echo for a moment. What was he afraid of? “Anything happening to you or Mabel. Another apocalypse. Bill’s high up on the list. Losing the Shack.” Grunkle Stan chuckled at that.

“Heh, kid, if we haven’t lost it by now, I don’t think it’s ever going to be a problem.” Dipper chuckled back, and the silence returned now with a large dose of awkward thrown in. Dipper coughed once.

“Whaaaaat about you Grunkle Stan?” He asked giving the other man a small, nervous smile. Stan sighed, eyes still towards the ground.

“Losing you and Mabel of course. But this growing old thing- I dunno, I’ve just...never really considered myself as ‘old’ you know? I’ve always been able to do most stuff and now…” Dipper considered what he said, with a frown. He didn’t really consider Grunkle Stan to be old either, but then again...he had to be, what, 70, 80? Stan was honestly the most fit elderly he knew. He had been serious in the hospital when he said Stan didn’t look a day older from when they were kids.

“Hey, you’re not any different than before, Grunkle Stan. It’s like...remember when I was 17 and I got really into that dairy diet?” Dipper asked.

“Yeah, so what?” Grunkle Stan asked, not seeing where his great-nephew was headed.

“Well, I got a kidney stone and couldn’t have dairy for like, four months. You haven’t been eating particularly well recently-”

“Hey, I’m old I can eat what I want.”

“See?! That’s exactly I mean! Anyone would have a heart attack after having the amount of fried food you do during a normal week.” Grunkle Stan sighed. “Just like I had to tone down the dairy, you need to watch your diet.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, kid. Go check on your sister, make sure she didn’t glue herself to roof again.” Dipper knew when he was being placated and dismissed, and could only give his uncle a sad smile and pat on the shoulder.

“Hey, that was only one time.” Dipper said as he passed. Grunkle Stan grunted at him in response.

Dipper shook his head as he reached their room, the noise of...was she hammering metal?

“Mabel, Grunkle Stan wanted me to check-”

“GRAPPLING HOOK!”

“AHHH!” Dipper barely had enough time to move with a shout before a large metal hook was flying past his chest.

“Mabel! What are you doing!?”

“Well, the old one couldn’t hold my weight anymore, so I took that mechanism and made a new grappling hook!” Mabel held a thick rifle, rope coming out of the barrel. Dipper was...highly impressed.

“Wow, can it actually carry your weight?”

“I dunno, let’s test that out!” Mabel said, reeling in the hook.

“No, no! We should wait until morning to do that. We don’t want you getting stuck to the roof again.” Dipper said with a snicker.

“Oh come on, that was one time!”

 

That night, Dipper dreamt of his dorm and the grossly thin monster again. He woke up even earlier than last time.

 

They had gotten into the swing of things from there on out. Mabel and Dipper would open up the shop together, after checking on Stan and giving him his medicine. Stan would then either laze about and watch tv, or have his recliner brought in and man the register. They would make certain he was taking his medicines throughout the day and, on Sundays, would have the day off to explore around Gravity Falls, or hang out and do stuff in town.

Dipper continued having the weird dream about the dorm. He started noticing small details between them, this flyer was red and but was blue the next night, or this door had a triangle on it, and now this one did instead. He just thanked everything he didn’t have that one with the pyramids again. He wasn’t sleeping though, not nearly as well as he should be. Everytime he would wake up at some ungodly hour of the morning, and be unable to get back to sleep.

Dipper also got used to having to take tours more often. Two weeks later and it was now the beginning of May. And that meant the start of tourist season, or in Mabel’s words, “My attempts to get you to socialize while simultaneously making money off of your totally hot bod.”

 

 


	3. Mabel’s attempts to get Dipper to socialize while simultaneously making money off of his totally hot bod

Okay, so maybe he wAs exaggerating a little, and maybe that didn’t exactly need it’s own chapter break. He was still being worked too much.

“Mabel, you’re my sister and I love you, but I am done giving out tours.” Dipper said as he came back from another guide. He’d given them for four days in a row now, and really just needed to recharge from it. Besides, wearing the eye patch for such long periods of time was doing weird things to his light adjustment and depth perception. Mabel sighed.

“Well, I guess we can give you a break.” She said with an eye roll, as her and Grunkle Stan counted today’s profits at the table. Dipper let out a breath in relief, flopping into his normal seat. He closed his eyes. Damn it he was tired.

“Come on, wake up sleepy head!” Dipper cried out and waved his hands around as his chair hit the floor. Mabel and Stan were laughing. She had leaned his chair back. Dipper felt his face heat up.

“Mabel, you know I hate it when you do that!” Dipper said, resettling himself and willing his heart to stop racing.

“Well then maybe someone should stop falling asleep at the table! You’ve been out for almost an hour, I even finished dinner. Wonk!” She said, putting down smiley face hamburger and grapes in front of him. His anger diminished, and he accepted the food with a grumble.

“About that kid, what’s the matter? Your eyes have larger bags under them than usual.” Grunkle Stan asked as Mabel put down his plate with another ‘Wonk!’ Dipper took a bit out of the- soy burger? Huh, Mabel hadn’t broken out the vegetarian food since freshman year.

Dipper spoke after swallowing,“Just...I’ve been having this dream- or nightmare recently. Just about every night.” He’d needed some time to think over if he wanted to say anything yet. He figured it was as good a time as ever.

“Ohhhh, what kind of nightmare bro bro?” Mabel asked, sitting down. Grunkle Stan shot her a glare when he found out it wasn’t real beef.

Dipper pushed around his grapes as he told them about the dream. The basic pattern, the small differences between each dream, the triangles that always popped up in odd places. Mabel and Grunkle Stan both listened carefully, and Dipper appreciated it.

“You don’t think it’s Bill, do you?” Mabel asked. Grunkle Stan shook his head.

“I’d doubt it, he’s normally a less subtle than that. Besides, if he wanted something with Dipper he would’ve contacted him by now.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. I don’t know, it’s probably nothing. Just- nerves or something.” Dipper said. Mabel shot him a look, and he knew they were talking later. She was worried.

“Guh. This fake beef nonsense is a nightmare.” Grunkle Stan said, taking another bite out of his food. Mabel gave him her best smile.

“Awwww, you know you secretly find it okay!” Mabel said. Grunkle Stan grunted and took another bite while cringing.

Their dinner went back into more pleasant realms of discussion, as well as business. Mabel and Grunkle Stan had a minor argument about if the Hide-Behind project was ready yet, and Mabel agreed she would take over tomorrows tour shift for Dipper.

After they cleaned up for dinner, Mabel immediately linked arms with him and led Dipper into the spare room.

“So, bro bro...do you want to talk about it?” she asked softly. They both took a seat on the couch, but Dipper couldn’t relax his body. He was fidgeting.

“Mabel, I-I don’t think it’s about that.” he said, looking downward. He couldn’t bring his eyes up to hers. He rubbed his arm anxiously.

“Really Dipper? Cause it seems pretty similar to the ones before.” He knew she was just trying to help, and she’d gotten so much better about not just barging right into the problem. Dipper sucked in a large breath of air, and exhaled.

“You’re right. I just think- with everything that happened with Grunkle Stan…”Mabel nodded and patted his hand.

“I understand, Dipper. But if it doesn’t get better soon, promise me you’ll get help with it?” Dipper nodded and clunked his head onto her shoulder. They stayed like that a while, leaning on each other, filled with memories both wished had left them alone.

“Alright come on! I have to show all the work I’ve done on the Ninja gear!” Mabel said, breaking up their awkward sibling moment.

He had another nightmare that night. It wasn’t as bad though. And he remembered floating in the darkness a long time afterward.

And of course, Mabel ended up as tour guide the day they had absolutely no one come in for tours. Literally no one. Not a single person went on a single tour the entire day. To be fair, Dipper was working the register and very few people came into buy anything. It decided to torrentially downpour starting at 5am, which kind of put a damper on the tourism thing, but still.

They were about to close up when they heard Grunkle Stan scream from the house. Both twins gave each other one look and went running into the house.

“Grunkle Stan! Are you okay?!” Dipper yelled, as they turned the corner.

In some kind of freak accident, a hole had busted through the roof, dumping a mass of water on Grunkle Stan. He was entirely soaked, and more water poured through the very person sized hole in the roof. With a sigh, Dipper started heading for his room.

“I’ll get the roof.” He said, heading up to their room and changing into his bathing suit. Mabel was getting Grunkle Stan dried off and got the complaints department for the leak while Dipper went to fix the hole.

Without much else available, Dipper nailed a piece of plywood into place, before putting a trash bag layer over that to try and add extra sealing power.

Over the next three days, freak accidents starting popping up more and more, all of them around Grunkle Stan without the twins around. Between the ‘S’ falling down from the sign two more times, their microwave exploding, and a gooblin somehow getting into the faucet when Stan was taking a shower, all three of them knew something was up. Dipper started spending his extra time scouring the journals looking for anything that could be causing the phenomena, while Mabel kept extra vigilance on Stan at all times. They’d even started taking watches when Stan went to bed, though they made sure not to mention it to him.

Mabel started taking over Dipper’s shifts early on. He was already getting such little sleep, she wanted to help him out. The lack of sleep might have been what led to Mabel making the terrible decision to go driving, even when Dipper told her not to.

The phone rang soon after she left, still early in the morning. She needed to pick up something or another- something large, that she’d needed his old pick-up for.

“Kid, can you get that?” Grunkle Stan yelled at him. Dipper huffed, hoisting the box up.

“Kind of busy at the moment.” He yelled back, continuing to carry the large box to the back of the store. What the hell was even in this thing?

He finally put the box down, cracking his back with a stretch as he stood up. He walked out into the living room, only to find Grunkle Stan in a rush, getting himself dressed up.

“Hey, you going somewhere? Who was on the phone?” Dipper asked.

“It was the sheriff- Mabel got into a car accident. It’s bad.” Dipper thought his heart stopped.

Without a second glance, he bolted to get his shoes on, grabbing the keys as he went. He leapt off the porch, running to their car, sliding in, and starting it up, pulling it in front of the shack for ease of access when Grunkle Stan was done getting ready.

Dipper tapped his foot rapidly.

“Come on, come on! Grunkle Stan where are you?!” Dipper waited only a moment longer before he got out of the car, rushing up to the door.

“Grunkle Stan come on, we have to-!” Dipper stopped in his tracks

Stan was on the floor gripping his chest tight, gasping for breath.

“Grunkle Stan!” Dipper cried out, rushing to the man. He stopped just as he was about to pick Stan up-

He couldn’t touch him. He couldn’t make it worse, what did he do in this situation what were you suppose to do?!

911.

Emergencies, that’s what it was for.

Dipper ran for the house phone, nearly tripping on the way.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“My uncle is having a heart attack!” Dipper answered hurriedly.

“Okay, sir, what is your address?”

“I-” Oh fuck, he didn’t remember, “It’s 6- 613- no, 618, Gopher Road!”

“Okay, what’s his name?”

“S-stanford Pines!”

“Okay, does he have a history of heart injury?”

What even was the point of asking that?!

“Yes! Yes, he’s had a heart attack just recently!”

“Okay, I’m sending someone out right now, this is what you need to do- stay with him, wait for the ambulance to arrive. Try and keep him as calm as possible. If you have aspirin in the house, I need you to have him chew and swallow no more than the recommended dose, do you understand?”

“Y-yes. Aspirin. Got it.” Dipper dropped the phone, rushing to his uncle’s room. He tore open his underwear drawer scrambling to find where his uncle kept his medicine. He snatched it from under the black socks, and ran back to his uncle. This time he did trip. He barely composed himself before getting there.

“Okay- okay Grunkle Stan, I n-need you to take these. Chew them, make sure you chew them and swallow them!” Dipper said, shoving the medicine into Grunkle Stan’s mouth. He barely chewed three times before swallowing the medicine. “An ambulance is on its way, just hang on!”

“Mabel-” Stan ground out.

Dipper’s heart skipped a beat.

Lie.

 _Lie_.

“Grunkle Stan she’s okay, just a cracked rib you- you just need to calm down.” Dipper heard his own voice waver. Grunkle Stan grabbed his hand in a vice grip, painfully squeezing.

The ambulance arrived minutes later, immediately checking Stan and hooking him up to machines, all the while getting him carted outside and into the bus.

Dipper didn’t go with them in the ambulance. He regretted it the moment they pulled up the driveway, and sobbed on the floor of the porch.

Was Stan going to be okay? Oh god, was Mabel alright?

Dipper took a shaky breath, getting into his still running car. He could hear Mabel say 'you better go catch it!' and punched the steering wheel in frustration. After another three punches, Dipper settled down enough to make his way to the hospital.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, the chapter title has nothing to do with the rest of the chapter. I just like 4th wall breaks, even if they are as crappy as this one. Again, unbeta'd so super apologies for errors and oocness and what not.
> 
> Either or, hope you guys enjoy, and leave a comment if you don't mind!


	4. Let's Make a Deal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'll! So! Chapter 4. To explain how I work, I have like, up to chapter 7 written, and when I get a chapter done I post a chapter like, 3 steps behind. So I just finished chapter 7, so II'm posting chapter 4 that kinda thing. For some reason, chapter 7 just kind of rushed out of me all at one time so yeah! Fun times!
> 
> Thank you so much everyone who commented! I turned into a blushing puddle from it all, it was really wonderful to hear what you guys thought!
> 
> As always, not beta'd almost at all so it's full of little errors here and there I'm sure. 
> 
> If you want to get in contact with me, my tumblr is citrusmewtwist.tumblr.com
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

“Surprise…!” Mabel smiled weakly from heR bed.

“Mabel, getting into a car accident isn’t a surprise.” Dipper said with exasperated affection.

She had minor cuts to her face, a broken arm, and a concussion. The accident wasn’t her fault, and she luckily had gotten her license Returned at the end of April. He got to see her right away.

Stan was a different story.

Dipper had to wait for hours until Stan was considered fit enough for visitors, and he was asleep when Dipper went to check on him. The doctors gave him information on both Mabel and Stan. He couldn’t remember a thing she said went he sat back down in Mabel’s room.

“So what did the doctor say?” Mabel asked weakly.

“Huh?” Dipper asked, broken out of his haze. Mabel frowned at him for a long moment, neither of them saying anything.

“Come on up here brother of mine.” She said quietly, patting her bed. Dipper exhaled a shaky breath and climbed up next to her. He had to lie on his side.

She hugged him close and he cried. He knew she was crying too. She just didn’t make as much noise as he did.

They stayed that way for a long while. The doctor came in at one point, when they’d both finished their crying. They stayed lying next to each other hoping the world might stop for a minute and they could catch their breath. Dipper resented the doctor for interrupting that solace.

She was there to tell them the basics of Stan’s care. They had to monitor him for an extended period of time, that this heart attack was most likely caused by hearing about Mabel’s car accident. Dipper wasn’t quick enough to stop the doctor from saying that.

“It’s my fault he had another heart attack?” she said, tears already starting to well-up in her eyes. This time when she cried, Mabel weeped. The doctor left them alone after that.

Mabel cried for hours. Her deep sobs, turned into hics, which turned back into the silent tears. Dipper hugged her as close as he could, and cried with her- he cried because she did, because Mabel felt guilty and it wasn’t her fault, because he was worried about Stan.

They were both starting to settle down again, when the door burst open.

“Mabel!” two feminine calls rang out from the room, though one was definitely more effeminate than the other.

“Grenda, Candy!” Mabel let out, nose stuffy and sounding even more ragged than she did when Dipper saw her first.

“I’ll just- step out for a moment. I’ll be in the lobby if you need me for anything.” Dipper said, quickly leaving the room. He wanted to give Mabel time with her friends. He sniffed, rubbing at his face to clear away the tear stains he knew were there.

He collapsed in a chair in the lobby, leaning back and spreading his feet out in front of him. This was borderlining on the single worst day he’d had...probably ever. If not the worst week.

Still. There was something therapeutic about crying. It helped somehow, even helped soothe his nerves into quiet for the time being. Part of him just wanted to sleep but he didn’t think he could take the nightmares.

Someone had swerved into his sister. They weren’t being careful around a turn and swerved into the other lane and hit her dead on. Mabel, thank god, was wearing her seatbelt and hadn’t brought her pig with her. He could only imagine how that would've turned out.

Dipper took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He heard Mabel, the voice of reason in the back of his mind, ‘No what-if’s! You’re just going to stress yourself even more than you normally do.’ He nodded and took another deep breath, leaning his head against the back of the seat. Deep breaths, be calm. Relax. Just...relax…

 

It was only a moment later when he woke to the sound of laughter.

“Hahahaha! Dang Pine Tree, I would say you look good, but your eyes are baggier than a grocery store!” Oh god he knew that voice.

“Bill!” Dipper yelled at the small triangle demon willed himself into existence in the now monochrome hospital lobby.

“Aw, you did miss me Pine Tree! I’m touched!” Bill said.

“How are you even here?! You got sucked into that portal when-”

“WHEN YOU TURNED AGAINST ME?!” Bill screamed igniting red and tripling in size immediately. Dipper gasped, backing a few steps before hitting the chair and falling into it. Bill took a few breaths, calming down and minimizing again.

“All water under the bridge Pine Tree.” Bill said, mock putting his hands on his hips. Dipper gapped at him. “You should close your mouth you might start-” Bill summoned a swarm of bugs, “attracting flies! Hahahaha!”

Dipper spat out the bugs, swatting at those that were still buzzing around his head. He imagined bug spray spraying the bugs away, and they quickly died in the toxic fumes. Bill harumphed and crossed his arms.

“You’re no fun.” He said. Dipper glared at him.

“What are you doing here, Bill?! What do you want from me?!” Dipper asked, standing back up.

“You know, kid, I’ve heard your uncle’s been having a hard time recently.” Bill said, while fake gazing at his nails. It was so matter-of-fact it caught Dipper off guard, “Two heart attacks in less than a month! Not a healthy decision on his part.” And then it made sense. The sign falling down, the gooblin.

“ _You_! You’re the one who’s been doing all that stuff to Stan! How-” Dipper faltered, dread filling his system at the thought, “ _How_ have you been doing all those things?”

“Oh that’s not all I can do, take a look at this!” Bill said. He snapped his fingers, and a ball and cup appeared. With a small hum he successfully got the ball into the cup on his first try. “Tada! And before you try and blame me, no, I was not the cause of Shooting Star’s accident. But still, hilarious! Hahaha! Haaaaa….But!” Bill started, hovering down to Dipper’s level, “Your uncle isn’t looking good is he?”

That hit Dipper in too fresh a wound, and he wanted to throw something at Bill. That would just encourage him more though, so Dipper checked his temper.

“I’m not interested Bill. Get out. Now.” Dipper said, turning away from the demon.

“Oh, well. I guess it looks like you don’t want to hear my proposition…” Bill turned away drooping. “Which is why I’m going to tell you anyway!!” He flipped around with a flourish.

Dipper groaned and covered his eyes.

“So your uncle’s in a rough spot. Probably doesn’t have much time left for this world. I can make that go away.” Dipper scoffed.

“You? You couldn’t even beat a thirteen year old, how could you-”

“I can solve all his heart problems, with just a snap of my finger.” Bill interrupted forcefully. He brought up a heart monitor, the screen showing Grunkle Stan’s failing health. Dipper’s breath caught and he looked terrified from the screen to Bill. His gaze hardened.

“I- I’m still not interested Bill. Grunkle Stan is old, he knows that. He’s going to pass away eventually.”

“Oh? Then what about Shooting Star?” Bill asked slyly. Dipper gave him a confused look.

“What do you mean?” The way Bill’s eye perked up. That was the wrong thing to say. Or, in Bill’s case, the right thing.

“Oh, nothing. Just the fact that she caused the accident that led to her Uncle’s heart attack meaning it was all her fault he died.”

Dipper gritted his teeth.

“That’s not true at all!”

“Oh, it isn’t? She said it herself, Pine Tree. Could you really let her live with herself, knowing she killed her Uncle?” Dipper was quivering with fury. This...this fucking demon.

“What do you want?” He ground out.

“Just one thing- I want to live with you and Shooting Star in the Mystery Shack.” What…

What was this demon playing at?

“That portal is destroyed, as well as the plans to remake it. They’re gone forever, Bill.” Dipper said dangerously. Bill rolled his eye, putting his hands on his ‘hips’ again.

“You really think I’m interested in that old pile of scrap?” Dipper blanched.

“What else would you be interested in?!” Bill gave Dipper a considering look, eyeing him up and down. Dipper nearly shivered as he was suddenly reminded of the young woman from earlier.

“That’s what I want, kid. Take it or leave it.” Bill said, putting out a hand. Dipper looked at it. He was not seriously considering this…

Heaven help him, he was seriously considering this.

“So...You just get to live with us.” Dipper said, “And in exchange, you’ll cure all my Grunkle’s health problems?”

“That’s the deal.” Bill said. Dipper’s mind raced for things to add to his side of the deal.

“Alright fine. But while this deal is on, you can’t intentionally hurt anyone in my family.” Bill withdrew his hand for a moment, rubbing at a non-existent chin. Dipper internally squirmed. This...oh Mabel please don’t be too mad.

“Alright Pine Tree, you got yourself a deal.” Bill said, extending his hand again. Dipper gulped before taking the demons hand. Blue fire erupted from the touch, before dissipating back down again.

“Soooo,” Bill started, as he separated from Dipper, “I have things to do. I’ll swing by in the next day or two.” Bill said, with a wave of dismissal. “Sweet dreams, Pine Tree.” Bill closed his eye slowly. “Did you see that? That was a wink. It’s hard, you know the one eye- nevermind, later bye!”

 

Dipper jolted awake, falling out of his chair.

Nurses were at the desk doing paperwork. Fluorescent lighting reflected on linoleum flooring. Color.

Oh thank everything he was back. Dipper got back into his chair and buried his face in his hands.

Mabel was going to literally kill him when she found out about this. And how the heck was he suppose to hide this from Stan? Assuming Mabel didn’t outright tell him.

He’d...he’d just put off telling her. He had a night to himself right? Who was he kidding, he was going to spend it with Mabel in the hospital.

He waited in the lobby only a few more minutes before Grenda thundered over to him.

“Mabel says you should come back and hang out with us.” Grenda said. Hooo, boy, he didn’t know if he could take Candy staring at his butt when he was trying to console his sister. God, she probably sawed the chair leg again, so he couldn’t sit down.

Still, this was his sister.

“Y-yeah, I’ll be right in.” Dipper said. With a bracing breath, Dipper stood up and walked to his sister’s room.

Mabel was currently giggling with Candy on her bed, no trace of tears on her face. It put Dipper’s fears to ease...even if Candy was a freak.

“Heya Bro-Bro!” Mabel said as he walked in and sat down in the extra chair. Luckily, Candy had not sawed it.

Dipper stayed with his sister for the night, all of them having a ‘slumber party’ in Mabel’s hospital room. Grenda took the other chair in the room, while Candy stayed in bed with Mabel. Dipper resisted sleep for as long as he could hoping to avoid potentially running into Bill again. He still succumbed in the early hours of the morning. His sleep was dreamless and short.

The next thing he knew he was being shaken awake by one of the nurses.

“I’m sorry, at least one of the visitors has to be awake at all times.” She said, to which Dipper nodded and stretched his neck. “The cafeteria is open now if you want to grab breakfast.” The nurse suggested before rechecking on Mabel.

Dipper stretched and left to grab breakfast for all of them. He checked his phone after he snuck from the room- 7:08am.

When he got back with several cartons of food, all three of them were awake.

“Oh food’s here!” Grenda called, grabbing all the cartons from Dipper and bringing them over to Mabel’s side table.

“Wait, some of that-!” Dipper started as all three of them grabbed at the food, “Seriously?”

“Rainbow sprinkle, three syrup, powder sugar waffles! Broseph, you know how to treat a girl!” Mabel said, quickly grabbing a fork and digging. Dipper just shook his head, as all three began their feast. Mabel was smiling again. That was enough for him. Besides, he needed to visit Grunkle Stan.

“I’ll- just- go get more.” Dipper said, moving to leave before Candy stopped him.

“You could always eat some of mine.” Candy said, a piece of bacon in her mouth, half of it extending off her lips. She puckered them. Dipper grimaced in disgust, even more so when Grenda leaned over and bite the bacon. Dipper quickly backed away from the following commotion.

He made his way to Grunkle Stan’s room, finding another commotion there.

“I feel fine!” he heard Stan say. Peeking in, he saw three nurses and Doctor Turner, all trying to get Stan to stay in bed. Stan, meanwhile, was half out of bed, trying desperately to stand up.

“Grunkle Stan!” Dipper said, brows furrowing at the elderly gentleman.

“Kid! Just in time, I’m glad you’re here.” Stan started, “You can tell these kooks to get off of me!”

“Mr. Pines, you just had a heart attack.” Doctor Turner said lazily. Dipper perked his head at her- wasn’t this a little bit pressing? He shook his head, thinking back to the task at hand.

“Grunkle Stan, stop being a pain.” Dipper said, giving the man a pointed look.

“Ugh, jeez kid, even you’re against me now? Fine! I’ll just sit here like uh- uh- I don’t even know what, but that’s how I’ll be sitting. Like that.” Stan said narrowing his eyes at Dipper.

Dipper walked up to his bed as the nurses got everything resituated.

“Could you try not causing a ruckus for once?” Dipper said teasingly. Stan grunted in response.

“You’ve avoided me twice now Stan. Let’s hope it stays.” Doctor Turner said as the last nurse left the room. “We got your blood work back- your heart took some heavy hits, but you seem to be doing better.” She said to both of them, “Definitely still needs to lower your cholesterol.”

“What I need is a vacation.” Grunkle Stan said, crossing his arms. Dipper perked up.

“As long as that vacation involves lots of time lying on a beach, yes that would be a good plan.” Doctor Turner said, “You’ll have to wait though. We’re going to be keeping you here for a few days, just like last time. Make sure you are getting everything you need.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. Now where’s my breakfast? I’m old and frail and hungry.” Dipper snorted at that.

“I’m sure it’ll be in right away, Mr. Pines. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have another Pines family member to go check on.” Doctor Turner said, leaving the room.

“Sooooo, were you serious about that vacation part?” Dipper asked him, trying to be inconspicuous.

“Yeah I was. I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii or...I dunno, the Florida Keys or something. I’m going to have to take time off work anyway, might as well enjoy it.” And rob some people out of everything, Dipper thought to himself. Yes. Oh thank everything, this sounded like it was going to happen.

“Mabel and I will run the store while you’re gone then. Do you know how long you’ll want to be vacationing for?” Dipper asked. Please make it definite, please make it definite.

“I’m thinking...2, 3 weeks? Probably not longer then that, I mean, how exciting can one beach be at the end of the day?” Grunkle Stan said. Dipper, who had never been to the beach, just nodded and feigned chuckling.

Oh this was perfect. Bill would show up, just as Grunkle Stan left. Bill was sure to get bored of being around them after a few days, let alone a couple of weeks. Yes!

“...yo kid, you’re doing that weird stare off thing.” Stan said, poking Dipper in the face.

“Oh oh, sorry, hehe, I was just...yeah, Hawaii! That sounds pretty crazy.”

“Yeah. I dunno, running the shack with just the two of you might not go so well..maybe I shouldn’t-”

“No no no!” Dipper said, waving his hands, “It’s- your heart really could use the break Grunkle Stan. And you know, with all the crazy things that go on in Gravity Falls.”

“Hmmm. Alright kid, you have me convinced. The moment I get out of this place, I’ll head off.” Dipper internally fist pumped just as a nurse came in with breakfast.

“Finally some food!” Grunkle Stan said, rubbing his hands together, “Go check on your sister while I eat or something.” Dipper rolled his eyes, smiling despite himself.

This was going to work out everything was going to be fine! Grunkle Stan was going ot leave for a few weeks while Bill was here! He’d just get Mabel home explain the entire situation, and it would be perfect! There was no way this plan could go wrong!


	5. The Plan Going Wrong

“YOU WHAT?!” Mabel screeched at Dipper. Dipper flinched and took a feW steps back, “What the hell were you thinking?!”

“I-I- I was just trying to save Stan-!” Dipper tried to defend himself.

“Dipper this is BILL! He’s tried to cause the apocalypse like, what, four times now, five?! I can’t even remember it’s been that bad! And you know he has a fascination with you and- urrrrrgh!!” She grabbed the broomstick out of the closet.

“M-Mabel, what are you doing with that?” Dipper asked taking another step back towards the employee’s only door. She faced him, seething.

Dipper bolted into the living room.

“GET BACK HERE! I HAVE TO BEAT YOU SILLY!”

They’d returned from the hospital that day. Mabel was, generally, feeling much better. Achy, but better. They hung out, doing things to Mabel’s cast- paint, bedazzle. Heck, she’d even sewn some yarn into it for a ‘future project.’ They were getting the shack ready for tomorrow when Dipper thought it might be a good time to bring up the deal he made with Bill.

After she managed to catch up with him and make good on her beating, they sat at the dinner table Mabel glaring at him.

“Mabel, I-”

“No! You don’t get to talk right now! No talking privileges, you’ve lost them!” Dipper looked downward in shame and curled in on himself, rubbing at his arm. She was rightly upset with him...but he honestly didn’t think it would've been this bad.

“Okay.” Mabel said finally, “We are going to avoid letting Grunkle Stan find out about this at all costs.” Dipper nodded, “And when Bill actually gets here, we’ll be ready for him.”

“Mabel, I don’t think he’s going to do anything-”

“Really Dipper? You’re going to try and say that after everything, everything he put us through? Everything he put _you_ through?” Dipper narrowed his eyes at her.

“Seriously? You don’t think I know what he’s capable of?” Dipper asked.

“Evidently not or you wouldn’t have made the deal!” Mabel shouted.

“I was trying to save Grunkle Stan!” Dipper shouted back, a mournful tremor in his voice. “You weren’t there Mabel! You didn’t have-” Dipper closed his mouth and looked away. He didn’t want to cry anymore. Besides, Stan was fine everything was done with.

“Dipper…” Mabel said. Oh geez, she had her pity face on. He took in a shuddering breath, knowing she wanted to hear what happened.

“Calling the ambulance, watching Grunkle Stan lying there gasping in pain and not- not being able to do anything about it!” Dipper said, not able to meet his sister’s eyes. He kept his tears locked down on a lid. She got up from her chair, hugging him around the neck. Dipper brought his arms up around hers.

 

Two days had gone by since they’d argued. They’d tried their hardest to just ignore it, but weren’t incredibly successful. Both of them were walking on eggshells constantly, both of them just waiting for Bill to come by, while being somewhat unsure of where they stood with the other. It’d been a long time since they had such an intense argument.

Mabel visited Grunkle Stan three times a day- for all meals he had at the hosptial. Dipper joined for dinner, running the Shack until closing. Grunkle Stan insisted he felt fine, better than he had for a long time.

“It’s...it’s kind of weird actually. Like the pain in my back?”

“The one in your lower back you always complain about and make Dipper give you massages for?” Mabel asked. Dipper cringed. So much sweat and hair…

“Yeah, that one! It’s completely gone.” Mabel shot her brother a worried glare. Dipper returned with a subtle shoulder shrug, and rubbed his arm.

“T-That’s good to hear I think!” Mabel said, “At least that means no more massages for Dipper.”

Mabel was obviously struggling at keeping the secret from Stan. After her first visit she came in and flopped onto the counter and complained to Dipper about it for over an hour.

Dipper stocked the shelves with bobble heads lazily, rubbing at his face. He was trying to think of a way to make up with Mabel. The problem was they were both ashamed of their behavior and that made things harder. What if Mabel wasn’t ready yet?

He had been getting less sleep than usual, between the stress of Bill and the nightmares he was surprised he could even function this early in the morning. Mabel had already left to go visit Stan for breakfast and the morning traffic of people wasn’t going to be there for a while. Just a few little things to get done first.

Knock knock.

Dipper looked towards the door, gut twisting. He took a deep breath, calming himself down. Both Mabel and himself had been jumping at every small and sudden noise.

Dipper got up heading towards the door. If they didn’t stop this stress nonsense they would be the ones in the having a heart attack. He saw a tall man outside the door as he approached. He opened the door.

“I’m sorry, we’re still closed at-”

“Good to see you Pine Tree! Like my body?” Dipper froze in place, eyes bugging out.

He knew that voice.

“Bill?!”

“Glad you still recognize me!”

The man Bill currently inhabited was tall and lithe, about half a foot taller than Dipper with tan, incredibly freckled skin and blond hair. His eyes were pale green, pupils slit like in his demon form. He was wearing a black silk shirt with a yellow vest and a bow tie. He had on black shoes and black slacks.

“Wow this place is more of a dump then I could tell. It definitely looks better in monochrome.” Bill said, poking his head past where Dipper stood in the doorway. Dipper’s mind was racing. He finally pushed the other man back outside. Gripping the dress shirt, he pushed Bill backward on the porch, slamming the door behind him.

“What the fuck is this Bill?!” Dipper ground out, shaking in anger.

“Woah woah there Pine Tree!” Bill said, his grin somehow widening, “I understand, you’re surprised!”

Dipper sputtered, “S-s...surprised?! You stole another person’s body, of fucking course I’m surprised!”

Bill tsk’d at him.

“Now now, Pine Tree, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to go making assumptions?” Bill tapped Dipper’s hand lightly, “Besides, the best kind of prize is a surprise! Hey, look what I can do!” Bill winked at him. “I can finally wink! Isn’t that great?”

Dipper shook him once, before he let go with a shove. Bill infuriatingly kept his balance.

“Get out of here Bill. And return that body to whoever the fuck you con’d out of it.” Dipper said. He ignored Bill’s pout, returning back inside with another slam of the door. He heard it splinter a little and internally flinched. It...wasn’t broken, so that was good.

Dipper took a few steps into the Mystery Shack before he heard the door rattle. He turned around just in time to see the door slam open with enough force for it to pop off its hinges. Dipper jumped nearly a foot in the air, taking a few steps back.

“Honey, I’m home!” Bill said as he walked inside, “Get it? Because you made a deal with me and I get stay with you here now.” Dipper was stunned silent as Bill toured around the place on his own. He...why had he honestly believed Bill would leave? Oh shit, what was he...

“Hehe, this is fun. More fun then when I was in your body, that’s for sure! Look at how tall I am now!” He said, easily reaching the roof. He grabbed onto one of the support beams that ran along the roof, pulling himself onto it. He started shimmying across it when he lost his grip and fell.

They needed to talk. Now.

Dipper walked over to where Bill was on the floor still, grabbing his arm. He dragged the demon into their living room.

  
  


“So you’re saying you had a deal with Ergman Bratsman, and you’re the reason he has the cloning machine.” Dipper was baffled. It...made sense. Sort of. The only other person he knew with the brain to make something like a cloning machine was Old Man McGuckett, and Dipper was certain he hadn’t been involved with that.

“Yeah, and he owed me a favor. Which I cashed in on by making my body.” Bill said, arm currently in the fish tank as he poked around. Except for Mabel’s lobster, which Grunkle Stan ate soon after she got it all those years back, the tank had been empty for as long as Dipper could remember.

“So you’ll be...staying with us.” Dipper said after a long moment, trying to wrap his mind around this predicament.

“Yep! And if you refuse I get to keep your soul!” Bill said energetically. Dipper bristled at that.

“What?! That wasn’t part of the deal!”

“I’m a demon kid, it’s implied. You go against a deal with a demon, they get your soul, everyone knows that.”

He didn’t know that. Hell, he didn’t even know if Bill was telling the truth.

Dipper sat in the plush chair trying to take in his current situation. Bill. A human. Person. Demon. Thing.

Gods, he hoped Bill was being honest.

Which...shit he hadn’t expected a human Bill. He hadn’t thought about preparing an extra bed. He could start there. A room for...Bill. Dipper got up from the chair, grabbing the back of Bill’s vest.

“Where are we going? And watch the clothing.” Bill said lying limp for Dipper to drag about the floor. Dipper ignored the clothing bit easily dragging Bill behind him.

“I’m going to get a bed together for you.” Dipper said, turning towards the extra room. No one really used it since Soos left, and Soos, thankfully, kept it incredibly clean. It was Grandpa Lee’s room, but now he shared a room with Stan. They had 30 years of crazy twin things to catch up with apparently.

“Oh nice room! It’s got some nice history in it I see.” Bill said, getting up on his own and walking around.

“Don’t break anything.” Dipper said flatly. He didn’t want to express his frustration and he knew he was going to snap at some point. Deep breaths, calming breaths.

Dipper got sheets from the closet as well as a blanket, heading back into the room, with a quick look to Bill to make sure he was still around. He rearranged the old sectional into a bed putting sheets and the blankets on. He’d have to come in here to vacuum at some point, and he would need to hunt down an extra pillow or two. With a nod to himself, Dipper turned around.

“There, what do-”

Bill was gone.

Shit. Why the hell hadn’t he paid more attention? How had Bill even snuck past him?

“Bill? Bill where did you go?!” Dipper bet anything he was in Stan’s office, or the Stans’ shared room. He rushed to the office.

No one was here.

Dipper darted into the room, looking around. Bill probably thought this was a game. Dipper was going to have to be more vigilant after this. He could not have Bill escaping on his watch like that. Just as he was checking under Stan’s desk he heard it.

Thump.

Dipper darted to the window, looking outside to see Bill face down on the ground, body spasming. Dipper flew out of the room, tripping and knocking over Stan’s chair in his rush to get outside.

Bill was still there when Dipper arrived, though he was sitting up.

“Bill, what the are you doing?!” Dipper asked.

“Oh, Pine Tree!” Bill said, starting to stand up. He immediately fell back down again with a laugh. “I wanted to see how well grass cushioned my fall. Turns out almost not at all!” Bill said.

Dipper scoffed, “Bill, literally anyone could have told you that!” Bill frowned at him.

“Stupid Pine Tree, just how many buildings have you fallen off of?” Dipper glared at him, checking the time of his cell phone. Shit, he needed to open soon, and he couldn’t leave Bill unattended. Damn it to hell.

He felt like a taxi cab at this point.

With a huff, Dipper picked Bill up and tossed him over his shoulder, heading for the Gift Shop entrance. Bill was chuckling to himself, his head rolling around probably still dazed from the fall. Dipper wasn’t being especially careful, and Bill hit his head on the door frame. (Also, fix the door, on the official to do list. )

“Ow! Hey, watch it Pine Tree!”

Dipper rolled his eyes and set Bill down behind the counter.

“Okay, listen up, we’re having some ground rules.”

“Nope.”

“No?” Dipper asked, incredulous.

“Not part of the deal.” Bill said simply. Dipper glared.

“You’re living in this house. They’re implied. If you don’t believe me, ask Mabel or Stan.” Dipper growled. Bill perked up excitedly at that, standing up and crossing his arms.

“Oh! Yes, when do I get to see them? They must be just dying to see me again!” Dipper rolled his eyes, doing his best to ignore the demon.

“Ground rules: 1, if you live here, you work here. End of story.”

“Hmm...I’ll get to work with you, right?”

Dipper gave him a puzzled look.

“I...yes?”

“Fine then, continue.”

Dipper stared at Bill a moment, before shaking his head and ignoring him.

“Okay, rule 2: you don’t talk to anyone about the magical crap that happens around here.” Bill frowned at that one, but didn’t give a comment, “rule 3: when Stan isn’t here, Mabel’s the boss. If she tells you to do something, you do it.”

Bill snickered at that.

“What?”

“Oh nothing.”

Dipper’s eye twitched. +“What?!” He asked more forcefully. Bill gave him an absolute shit eating grin.

“It just seems rather odd that Mabel is the boss and not you.” Bill suggested knowingly. Dipper paled a bit, but his glare must have been convincing enough to Bill because he spoke up before Dipper could, “Keep going with what you were saying, I want to get trying this whole ‘work’ thing.”

“I- think that’s it. There isn’t anything else I can think of.” He said, trying to think harder about it. He would lie, but he knew Mabel would call him out on it later and that would only lead to problems.

“Alright, what do we do now?” Bill said walking around the counter to the store. It put Dipper on edge.

“We run the shop, let tourists come in and buy- no, Bill stop-!” There was a loud shattering as a bobblehead hit the floor, followed by Bill shrieking with laughter and knocking over another one. Dipper turned around from the counter, “Stop what are you doing?!”

“Destroying the army of mini Stans.” Bill said, this time throwing one down onto the ground with another laugh. He turned away and wandered off just as Dipper came over. He didn’t even know where to start, he couldn’t rightly leave the demon unattended to get a broom.

There was a thump and Dipper looked over to see several Mystery Shack shirts lying on the floor. Bill currently had a large one and was trying to put it on backwards. It was stuck on his head.

“Bill stop destroying things!” Dipper said, his brain cluing in, “official house rule number 4! No destroying things!” Bill stopped and pointed his direction. Even with the shirt still stuck on his face, Dipper could tell he was pouting.

“Aww, no fair Pine Tree. You can’t just make them up as you go along, I need a list here buddy!” Dipper removed his cap running a hand through his hair as Bill knocked into the wall and fell down, laughing about it. Dipper sighed, putting his hat back on.

“Hey...Heeeeey!...HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY-!”

“What?!”

“A little help here?” Bill said trying to get himself up or the shirt off.

“You got yourself in there, you can get yourself out.” Dipper said, turning away from the demon and using his shoe to sweep up the bobble heads. He heard a ripping of fabric, watching Bill emerge from his cotton cocoon.

Dipper watched out of the corner of his eye when Bill looked around-and went directly for the Chinese Finger Traps.

“Oh~ these look fun!” He said, picking one up, “How do they work?” he asked looking it over.

“You put your fingers in it.” Dipper said impatiently. He bent down, picking up the larger pieces of ceramic, careful not to cut himself. He flinched backward as Bill stuck one in his face.

“Show me.”

Dipper glared at him. “Are you telling me, you’ve never seen these?”

“Show me.” Bill repeated.

“Seriously? You’ve really never-”

“SHOW ME!” Bill boomed his eyes, face, and hair turning red in color. Dipper fell backwards as he startled, gulping and nodding once when Bill was done his tantrum. He took the finger trap from Bill’s hold, sticking one of Bill’s index fingers in each hole.

“There, that wasn’t so hard was it Pine Tree?” Bill said with a laugh and a manic grin, “I’ll have you trained in no time!” Dipper didn’t grace that with a response as Bill tugged and twisted his fingers, trying to get them out.

“Having some trouble with that puzzle there?” Dipper said, a wicked smile coming to his face.

“Shut up, Pine Tree, and clean up my mess!” Bill said, gaze focused on the trap. Dipper scowled at him.

“You know what? No! Clean it up yourself Bill.” Dipper said, turning to head back to the counter.

“No way, Pine Tree. Do you really want to explain to your sister why there’s a bunch of shatter ceramic on the floor that no one has cleaned up?” he asked, still struggling with the trap. This demon was going to kill him.

Dipper deflated, but grudgingly accept that he was right- he wanted this to be as painless as possible for her. He looked towards Bill.

“No destroying anything!” Dipper reiterated, before grabbing the broom and dustpan from the closet. Bill was in the exact same place as when Dipper left except...he had gotten another trap, attaching it to his pinkies. Dipper shook his head, quickly sweeping up the broken ceramic and tossing it before he restocked the shelves. He looked over to Bill, seeing him in the same spot with another two traps, one on his thumbs the other on his middle fingers. Dipper resisted snorting in amusement, and put the extra box of bobble heads behind the counter.

Dipper heard his car pulling up the driveway just as he came from putting the supplies back. He stood behind the counter waiting for Mabel to come in. Soon, she bounced up the stairs, stopping in the threshold when she saw the state of the door.

“Dipper!! What gives, did you trip into the door again or- well hellooooooooo there~!” Mabel said, spying Bill.

“Mabel…” Dipper tried without any real effort. She ignored him.

“Looks like you got yourself stuck there, cutie patootie! We could help you get free. Together.” Mabel said with a giggle. Dipper almost puked.

“Oh, Shooting Star! I’m glad at least someone likes my new body!” Mabel eyed him in shock for a good half a minute before the wheels clicked into place.

“Bill?!” Mabel screeched, and the demon flinched at the volume.

“Geez, not so loud. And I thought these human ears were great, yeesh, I was wrong.” Mabel turned to Dipper frantic.

“What is he doing here like that?!” Turned to Bill, “What are you doing here like that?!”

“Mabel calm down, it’s okay-”

“Don’t you tell me to calm down and don’t tell me it’s okay! Our arch nemesis is currently in our home in the body of a hot guy stuck in Chinese Finger Traps and you’re telling me it’s okay?! What about this is okay?!”

Dipper took in a deep breath to control his laughter. This- was actually a pretty funny moment. Normally he was the one freaking out.

“Listen, Bill made this body with that crazy cloning machine the Sev’ral Timez manager had, as far as I know,” Dipper shot a glare a Bill, who was currently distracted trying to get himself out of the traps he put on his fingers, “he doesn’t have any magic while he’s in that body.” Besides whatever happened with his temper tantrum but just ignore that for now, “He hasn’t done anything crazy like try to burn down the shack or summon extraterrestrial demonic insanity gods so...you know…” Dipper recoiled sheepishly as Mabel scowled at him, “It’s a plus…?”

Mabel shook her head pinching her nose with a sigh.

“Dipper that doesn’t even make any sense. How would he be able to make a body from a cloning machine without dna?” Mabel pointed out.

“Please Mabel just...trust me on this, okay?” Dipper pleaded with her, “I don’t think Bill is up to anything too suspicious here. He probably just wants to drive us insane for a little while, and besides, he’s bound to get bored eventually right?”

They both looked over to see Bill starting to get laughing at the trap and flailing his bound arms around.

“These things are amazing!” Bill said, knocking himself into the wall. Mabel bite her lip.

“O-okay. Maybe he won’t be so bad.” Mabel said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh, thank you everyone who commented! It means a to and really super helps with continuing to write!
> 
> So I have this head-canon that Bill is basically a cat and loves to knock things off of surfaces. Especially things human shaped. Take that as you want to.
> 
> But, I hope you enjoyed and I'll get the next chapter up soon! Unbeta'd as always so apologies for any mistakes!


	6. Being That Bad

“Piiiiiiiine Treeeeeeee!”

Dipper covered his face with his pillow, trying to ignore the cawing from downstairs. He could hear Mabel sHifting around, stuffing her own ears with with both her pillow and blankets.

The rest of their afternoon had gone...decent? They didn’t have almost anyone come to the Shack, which was good because Bill didn’t know how to interact with people. Go figure, asking people if he could have their teeth was not a way to attract customers. It was just going to take some time to get him acclimated to humanity.

They were teaching him the basics of feelings as well.

“My stomach feels like I swallowed bones.”

“Why is my mouth so dry?”

“This...flesh pole down here is hard, why the hell is that?”

When bedtime came around was the first time things got rough.

Bill insisted he share his room with Dipper. There wasn’t enough room for this, not with both Dipper’s and Mabel’s beds. When Dipper pointed this out to Bill, Bill responded by assuming he’d take Mabel’s bed. Which was not going to happen.

“Dipper, it’s really not that big a deal…” Mabel said after Dipper dismissed Bill to the spare room. They were both tucking in for bed.

“It is though Mabel, we can’t just let him walk all over us.” Mabel sighed and snuggled in.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

There had exactly 5 minutes of silence before Bill started up. He would shout at Dipper until Dipper came downstairs only for it to be some mundane problem.

“I can’t get to sleep.”

“My throat is scratchy.”

“I’m having this weird pain in my lower stomach.”

“That thing down there is hard again.”

It was exhausting and he was obviously just trying to wear them down.

“PINNNE TREEEEE!”

“I can’t take it anymore!” Mabel said, throwing her blankets off and stomping out of bed.

“Mabel-”

“No! I need sleep Dipper, and I don’t care enough to put up with this nonsense anymore! He’s sleeping up here, and that’s final!” She said, grabbing up her pillow and stomping out of the room. Dipper sighed flopping back down on his mattress.

Bill strut in a moment later, a large grin plastered to his face. Dipper glared at him, turning over in bed. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and he listened for Mabel’s bed to squeak from Bill’s weight. Don’t turn around. Don’t turn around. He’s just trying to freak you out, don’t turn around.

“Hey Pine Tree!” Bill said directly into his ear.

Dipper shouted and flailed, grumbling as Bill laughed and jumped onto Mabel’s bed. Dipper sighed angrily flipping over in bed again.

“Goodnight, Pine Tree!” Bill said. He doubted it would be.

 

Dipper was practically falling asleep in his cereal, still in his pajamas. He spent the entire night on edge, and the very few hours of sleep he did get were full of that same stupid dream. He yawned as Bill came down the stairs.

“Woah, Pine Tree. At least brush your hair after you get attacked by squirrels during the night.” Bill said with a grin and a chuckle.

“Oh, I’m so sorry I don’t look exactly perfect for his royal highness, King Cool Ranch.” Dipper sassed glaring at his cereal.

“Yeesh kid, what’s got your undies in a twist?” Bill said, sitting down at the table. Dipper swallowed a bite.

“Oh like you don’t know.”

“Know what?” Bill asked.

“You can’t trick me Bill, there are triangles all over the place!”

“Is this some kind of game? It’s a stupid game.” Bill said flatly, eating handfuls of cereal.

Dipper stopped and considered him for a moment. He seemed generally sincere in his lack of understanding- Bill even starting to get frustrated with him. Did Bill not have control over the mindscape while he was here? Or did he really not mess with Dipper at all? Dipper paused for a moment deliberating on telling Bill.

“I...have been having nightmares most nights.” Dipper confessed to him.

“Ohhh, the scary kind?”

“Is there any- no, no I don’t want to know.”

“So these nightmares,” Bill started, “What happens in them?”

Dipper took another bite before speaking. “I get chased by a monster in my old college dorm. Why do you-”

“Hmm. Alright, I’ll get rid of them for you.” Bill said, looking at his nails for a moment. Dipper gaped at him. Bill waited a few moments, starting back on his food when he spotted Dipper’s incredulous look.

“I can bring the flies back.”

“What?”

“What?” Bill returned to him.

“But-!”

“But!” Bill echoed.

“What?” Dipper asked, now confused as to why Bill said ‘but.’

“What!”

“No, but what?!”

“What but?”

“That but!”

Bill erupted into laughter. “This butt? Hahahaha! Why, Pine Tree, I didn’t know swang that way! That’s a lie, I did.” Dipper sagged in his chair his face heating up as the demon continued to laugh. Dipper knew he hadn’t misheard the demon. Bill said he was going to cure his nightmares.

“What are you playing at?” Dipper asked, narrowing his eyes at the demon, still bright red in the face.

“Hahahaha!!! Look at your face! It must hurt to have so much blood rush to your mouth sacks!”

“They’re called cheeks, Bill. Good morning shopping buddies!!”

Of course Mabel would get back from visiting Grunkle Stan just as Dipper was going to get an answer out of him. Heck, knowing his luck Bill wouldn’t actually answer his question. She was fully dressed, a shopping bag sweater on.

“Shooting Star! I’m glad someone in this house isn’t grumpy.” Bill said, giving Dipper a pointed grin. Dipper rolled his eyes, getting up from the table and stomping into the kitchen.

They were going to the mall today to find Bill some clothes. Apparently, the demon only thought to bring one set. They’d put him in a pair of Dipper’s pajama pants he didn’t ever wear, and a spare Mystery Shack shirt last evening. He was back into his fancy clothing, but he needed more sets of permanent clothing.

“Pffft, that’s just because Dipper is such a Debbie Downer.” Mabel said, though Dipper could hear the tone of her voice. Her enthusiasm was entirely faked. She was just as uncomfortable around Bill as he was, she was just better at hiding it.

“He’s a Dipper Downer!”

Dipper ignored both of them and made his way upstairs (though he couldn’t help overhearing Mabel yell, “Bill! Bill- the table is not an obstacle to overcome!”) and getting out of his pajamas. He’d have to help Mabel move her things downstairs, dresser and clothes and the like. He’d just moved them up here too. Bill was very quickly becoming a hassle he didn’t want to deal with anymore.

Mabel insisted on driving them to the mall even after her accident and cast, mostly because she didn’t want to have to deal with Bill, who spent most of the car ride reminding them how cars were screaming metal death traps and climbing around various places in his seat. Dipper spent most of the car ride trying to force him back into his seat, while Mabel yelled at both of them.

“Well!” Mabel said as she parked the car in the lot, “We managed to get here without me crashing! I think that’s a job well done!”

“Boo!” Bill said from the back, wrapped in seatbelts. Dipper had tied him down with the straps. Both the twins unwound him, with his limbs flailing around.

The mall wasn’t particularly busy, though there were a few people still there. Mabel looked him over once, before deciding to start with  Dick and Kuntz Formal Wear. Dipper braced himself, getting ready to follow around as Mabel’s designated pack mule/body guard.

Mabel let Bill pick out his own clothes for a little while. Not surprising, Bill chose mostly formal attire- vests, button down shirts, bow ties, and slacks. Almost everything was black and yellow in color scheme. He also found a cane in one of the stores, who knows which. Dipper was trying not to pay attention after the underwear incident.

“Mmm, these look nice!” Bill said picking up a black and yellow g-string. Dipper couldn’t help himself, looking over to where Mabel was trying to gently wrestle it out of his hands.  Dipper bristled and blushed.

“That- no Bill. Mabel, don’t let him buy those!” Mabel gave him an exasperated look, as Bill put up sudden resistance to her taking them from him. Bill grinned at him.

“Ohhh? Why the blush Pine Tree, imagination running wild? Hahahaha!” Bill asked. Dipper stuttered and returned Mabel’s look. Bill had successfully wrestled the underwear from Mabel’s grasp.

He ended up buying three pairs. And after that, Dipper waited outside while Mabel and Bill shopped.

They were walking to the next store, Bill leading the way Mabel and him a few steps behind. He poked her to get her attention and started mouthing words.

‘How has Bill done with people?’ Dipper asked. Mabel flopped her hands around in a ‘so-so’ gesture.

‘Last store he did okay. The one before I caught him trapping the changing room so whoever goes in next got gouged with a coat hanger.’ So that’s why they left Tiecoon in such a hurry… ‘which, I mean, isn’t outright death like the last two attempts so...progress…?’

Dipper sighed rubbing his face with a hand. Maybe he should suck it up and go in with them next time and just control Bill. Though it hadn’t really worked out before. Somehow the demon always managed to sneak past them, around them or just cause chaos in plain sight. There were at least two stores they were definitely never going back to.

“Where did you get all this money?” Dipper asked Mabel, trying to keep suspicion away from their silent conversation. He startled backward, Bill’s face suddenly in front of his.

“That would be me, Pine Tree!”

“What?”

“Please,” He said, hands on his hips, “You don’t think I got nothing after destroying Atlantis and Eldorado, do you?.” Dipper didn’t know how to respond to that, “Now come on, Shooting Star is dressing me up.” Bill said, turning and continuing to the next store they were headed for. The twins shared a look before Mabel jogged to catch up with Bill.

The last store they entered was Seams Legit. Dipper, perhaps against his better judgement, decided to go into the store with them. He was going to keep an eye on Bill, and was not going to stop concentrating on that.

“So, what do you suggest Shooting Star?”

“I’m glad you asked, Bill!” Mabel went to the skinny jeans immediately.

“Those look uncomfortable.” Bill said with a grimace.

“That’s because they are! But you have perfect legs for them.”

“I’m glad we both noticed!” They laughed at the joke, something they had been doing the entire time the two were shopping together. It was...weird. Dipper could tell she was starting to lose the edge of her discomfort around Bill, and it only heightened his own.

“Okay, we need some summer wear for you, so when it’s too hot you have something lighter to wear...how about…” Mabel trailed off for a moment, looking through the racks. Dipper spied something next to him. He looked over to Mabel before readjusting his bags

“This?” He held up a white, short sleeved button up and khaki’s. Bill scoffed at him, ignoring the clothes. Mabel looked up, and laughed with an “Oh Dipper!” at his choices before going back to searching.

Dipper scowled at both of them.

“What is with that? I have fashion sense!” Both of them looked at him.

“You call that fashion?” Bill snorted at him, shaking his head. “Listen here kid, if there is one thing I know about, it’s fashion. And trust me cargo shorts, tees, and flannel shirts are not fashionable.”

Dipper fumed.

“How about this one Bill?” Mabel asked, picking up-

“Oh! See now that is much better!” Bill affirmed.

“That’s the exact same shirt!!” Dipper yelled in exasperation. Mabel rolled her eyes.

“Dipper, what you picked out a plain white button up. This is chest and sleeve fitted and also has black stitching. Also, the suspender strips add a nice touch.” Mabel said with a nod. Dipper crossed his arms, pouting and clenching his jaw. They picked out a couple more shirts, some stylish shorts in yellow and white, and even a pair of actual suspenders.

Dipper sulked away from them while they chose their clothing. They were getting along, somewhat at his expense and that bothered him. Mabel shouldn’t be getting along with Bill, they both were suppose to be weary of him. He was an insane demon housed in a human’s body.

“Dipper!” a voice called, breaking him from his thoughts. He looked up to see Tina outside the store. He sighed, waving to her even though he’d really rather not talk with her. He walked out of the place, leaving the other two to shop.

“I see you’re packing.” Tina said, giggling to herself as she eyed the bags. Dipper didn’t know how to respond- it sounded like another double entendre.

“Hehe- yeaaah. What are you um- doing here?” he asked.

She huffed, “Starting a shift unfortunately. I’d ask if you wanted to grab lunch otherwise.”

“Oh? Where do you work?” He chose to ignore the lunch comment.

“So Pho.”

“What?”

“Oh it’s this combination Vietnamese and furniture store over in the far back section of the mall,” She replied with a roll of her eyes, “I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it.”

Tina working somewhere like that was hard for him to imagine.

“Yeah it sounds...interesting?” He said with a slight smile.

“Not as interesting as the Mystery Shack. It seems like it’s a lot of fun working there!” Dipper brightened at the mention of the Shack. At the end of the day, he thoroughly enjoyed working alongside his sister at the Shack. He even liked giving tours as long as he wasn’t doing them everyday.

“It is, it’s quite a bit of fun actually.” He said, a genuine smile on his face this time. She returned it.

“Oh Dipper! Who's your friend?” He looked up to see a grinning Mabel and a neutral faced Bill standing just behind him. Mabel was carrying the bags.

“Oh, uhhh- Tina, this is my sister, Mabel and...her boyfriend, Bill.” Dipper said with a sly grin towards Mabel. The look on her face was priceless. Bill simply perked an eyebrow, looking unimpressed.

“Oh Tina, it’s so nice to meet you,” Mabel said through gritted teeth. She elbowed her brother as she stepped up to shake Tina’s hand, “Dipper is just always talking about you.” She said, giving a smirk back to her brother. It wiped the smile off his face very quickly.

“He is?’ She asked, her attention onto Dipper. He gulped and kept his gaze at his sister.

“You bet he is! Oh, but we haven’t introduced you to Bill!” Mabel said, gesturing to the man.

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you.” Tina said, sticking her hand out. Bill stepped up, looking at the offered hand.

“Bill.” Mabel not so subtly whispered. “Billlll. You’re suppose to take the hand!”

Bill’s gaze shifted up, meeting Tina’s, “I know what your fleshbag gesture means.” He said, purposefully crossing his arms. Tina’s demeanor changed instantly, eyes narrowing at the man as they had a stare down. Mabel and Dipper shared a scared look, not sure how either would react.

A tall, bald man with a tattoos and in a wife beater and shorts came up behind Tina, slapping her in the butt. Which effectively drew every person’s attention away from the staring contest of death.

“Hey, what the fuck?!” Tina said turning to the passing guy.

“What, it’s a compliment!” The guy turned briefly and said with a smirk. He turned around walking away from them.

“You want me to-?” Dipper asked, pointing to the guy who'd just swatted her backside.

She sighed. “No, no don’t worry about it. I need to get to work and it’ll take too much time. Anyway, it was nice meeting you Mabel! And I’m sure I’ll see you around again, Dipper.” She said with a wink as she left the group, not even sparing Bill a look. He sent her a very dark glare. One that worried Dipper greatly.

“So do you guys have all of your shopping done then?” Dipper asked shortly, still irritated with both of them.

“I think so. Unless we can find a better attitude at one of these stores for you.” Bill said with a snarky grin.

“OH! Someone get some butter, because this fool just got toasted!” Mabel said. Both of them laughed, Dipper blushing in embarrassment.

Fuck this. He dropped the bags, walking away from the two of them. If they were going to pick on him, they could carry their own things.

“Awww, Dipper. Dipper- it was just a joke Dipper!” He could hear Mabel shouting from behind him. Oh yeah, because he was laughing so hard. It was hilarious.

Dipper knew Mabel wasn’t going to follow- she’d know he would need some time to cool off. She’d apologize and everything would be fine. But until then, he wanted to get this aggression out of his system. Laser tag sounded like an awesome way to accomplish that. With that in mind, he turned in place to head in that direction, and ran into another person.

“Oh sorry-” he began.

“Watch where you’re going, faggot.” the guy said.

Dipper bristled.

“What the hell did you just call me?” Dipper said, getting a good look at the guy in front of him. It was the same one that had touched Tina inappropriately. Dipper felt his eye twitch.

“Ohhh, do you mean faggot?” The guy said. He was taller than Dipper, and only a little under his weight. “Yeah, cause that’s what you are.” The guy said.

Dipper took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. He felt his jaw clench and relaxed the tension that filled his body. Just ignore him, walk away. Ignore him walk away. Just think how amazing laser tag is going to be.

Dipper shook his head once, walking around the guy in the direction of his destination. The guy scoffed at him.

“Where you going?” he said, following after Dipper. He cursed internally, hoping beyond hope the guy would just leave him alone. “Where you going? You had so much to say before, faggot!”

Dipper stiffened as he felt a hand on his butt.

“Feel good faggot?”

Dipper lost his temper, whirling around ready to sock the guy in the face.

His fist never connected, a hand catching his wrist firmly.

“As much as I love violence Pine Tree,” Bill said with a manic grin, staring into Dipper’s eyes, “You should really leave it to professionals.”

Dipper was awestruck. There was no way on earth that Bill should be able to stop his punch. Dipper appeared much more muscular than the demon. Dipper relaxed his arm, Bill letting go as he did, still staring into his eyes. Dipper was still too shocked at Bill’s sudden appearance to look away.

“Woah, look at Mr. Monopoly up in here- wait, what the fuck is wrong with your eyes?” The guy said looking at Bill. Bill had ignored the man up until that point, leaning on his cane. He slowly turned to look at the other man, who was obviously disturbed by Bill’s appearance and mannerisms. He stared at the man, the manic grin still on his face.

“W-what the fuck are you looking at? You his faggot boyfriend or something?” The man said. Bill didn’t waver from his position. Dipper reflexively cracked his knuckles, hand forming into a fist. Bill chuckled.

“You humans have this funny saying; sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Bill started, taking a step closer to the man, “Which is a lie you meat sacks trick yourself into believing, but I’m a big fan of it.” He stood an arm’s distance from the man. Bill considered the man for a moment, looking up and down his body.

The man immediately attempted to push Bill away from him. With a swift motion, Bill parried the man’s hands and drove the tip of his cane through the man’s foot, a squelching and crunch vibrating into Dipper’s ears. The man gasped in pain. Bill grinned.

“Sticks and stones are much more effective.” he said matter of factly. The man didn’t make a noise until Bill withdrew the tip of his cane. The man sucked in a huge breath kneeling down and cradling his foot and letting out occasional whimpers and gasps of breath.

Bill raised his cane ready to bring it down on the man.

“Bill, stop!” Dipper said, catching the demon under his arm. Bill sneered at the man, powering through Dipper’s grip and following through with the motion. With another sickening squelch he caught the man in the gut with the hook of his cane. The man wheezed toppling over in pain, curling into a ball. Bill smirked, leaning down to wipe the blood of the his cane on the man’s wife beater.

Dipper stood speechless for only a moment, before grabbing Bill under the arm again, dragging him forward. The demon didn’t budge staring down at the man with a grin.

“Bill!” Dipper insisted, tugging at him again, “Bill we need to get out of here.” Bill perked an eyebrow at him with a dark chuckle.

“What, you think I’m afraid of a few flesh bag security officers?” Bill said. Dipper rolled his eyes, dropping his hand from the demon’s arm. If Bill was going to be difficult, fine. Let him be difficult then. Dipper grabbed Bill, hoisting him over his shoulder.

“Pine Tree!” Bill squawked, “Pine Tree put me down!” Bill said, smacking Dipper in the back with his cane. Dipper winced at the beating, jogging across the mall. They were going to be in deep shit. God, it was Bill’s second day and he was going to get arrested for assault.

“Pine Tree we’re causing a scene, don’t you care about that?!” Bill cried out at him, still smacking him with his cane.

“You just gouged a man’s foot in public, you can’t make more of a scene than that.” Dipper ground out, huffing his breath a bit as he booked it to where he’d dropped their bags. Mabel saw him coming and she immediately grabbed them.

“What happened?” Mabel asked as Dipper reached her.

“Bill impaled some guy-”

“I defended Dipper’s honor-”

“Which didn’t need defending-”

“And got rid of a degenerate. Honestly you should be thanking-”

“You killed someone!?” Mabel asked, horrified.

Bill scoffed, “No no, nothing like that, just a minor maiming.

“We need to leave, now.” Dipper said flatly.

“Shooting Star tell him to put me down!”

“Only if you promise to follow us and not physically harm anyone else!”

“Ugh, fine fine, just unhand me already!” Bill said, crossing his arms. Dipper dropped him, and the demon somehow still managed to land elegantly, straightening his vest. Dipper grabbed a few of the bags from Mabel before he started walking towards the exit.

“Okay everyone just- just act natural. We’re not that noticeable are we?” Dipper asked, trying to keep calm. They would just walk out of here. Inconspicuous. At a very brisk pace.

“Hey, you! Conspicuous young adults!” Sheriff Blubs yelled from outside a Tutti Fruitti Smoothies.

“The coppers found us, run for it!” Mabel yelled taking off in the direction of the car.

“Wait, Mabel!” Dipper started. They could have just talked their way out of this! Bill took off after her, “No stop, Bill!!” The man turned his head and smirked.

“Thanks for being the scapegoat, Pine Tree!” He said. No way in hell.

Dipper growled in frustration before he took off after them. He heard a ‘Stop running! from Blubs, but ignored him as they made their way through the mall. Dipper caught up to Mabel quickly, Bill having passed her, and Dipper smirked at her before pulling ahead. Mabel, in response, grabbed onto his arm and hopped onto his back.

“Onward my trusty steed! We must catch the demon and escape from this labyrinth!” She called out, wrapping her legs around his waist. Dipper grunted from the added weight, but couldn’t help but grinning. She’d definitely slow him down but it was worth the fun of it. Neither even checked if the Sheriff was following after them.

They raced out the side exit towards the parking lot they came in from, both looking out for any signs of Bill. He was going to stick around...at least, Dipper was pretty sure the demon would be around.

He huffed, out of breath and grinning from hauling around Mabel.  

“We have escaped the treacherous maze! Huzzah for the Pines family!”

“Huzzah!” Dipper called out lifting a fist in the air. He hoisted her up a bit before walking along the sidewalk, heading for the lot.

“Faster, steed, faster!” Mabel said, bouncing in his grip.

“Hey, hey! Watch it Mabel!” Dipper said, chuckling a bit.

“Then giddy up already!” She replied squirming more. Dipper started losing his grip.

“Mabel be careful!” Dipper said, trying to reposition her as he made his way onto the crosswalk.

“Let’s go already!”

“Mabel, stop!”

“Look out!!”

“Would you-”

“Dipper!!”

“Wha-?”

Dipper looked to his right, where Mabel was pointing, a car headed straight for both of them. Dipper chucked Mabel behind him on reflex, away from the impending collision. His body tensed arms out, as if they alone could stop the car.

“Dipper!”

The sound of metal crunching made him flinch. He cracked an eye open to see the car.

It had veered away from him and over the curb. There was a huge dent in the driver’s side of the car, the window shattered but still in its frame. The car was still on, engine rumbling in displeasure at the rough treatment.

“You okay, Shooting Star?” Bill asked. Dipper wheeled around, watching Bill help Mabel up from the pavement. She blankly nodded at him, gaze still on the car wreck. He wiped unseen dirt off of her sweater, before turning to Dipper.

“Pine Tree?” He asked. Dipper didn’t respond. “Bill Cipher to Pine Tree. Your engines on there buddy?” Bill snapped his fingers in front of Dipper’s face.

Dipper shook his head a bit. “You- you just-” Dipper sputtered looking back at the car.

Bill must have seen what was about to happen. He ran full speed, shouldering into the side of the car. He’d cause the car to veer and crash, saving Dipper from getting hit.

“So now that I’ve saved both your lives we can discuss how you will be eternally indebted to me. Later.” Bill said, grabbing a handful of each of the Pines Twins. Mabel quickly grabbed up the bags of clothes before she let Bill lead her to the car. Dipper put up a little bit more resistance, but was still easily pulled along.

Bill got Dipper into the driver’s seat and Mabel in the back before Dipper clued back into his senses. Bill was right, they had caused beyond a ruckus here and needed to leave.

“Seatbelts.” Dipper reminded as Bill got into the passenger seat.

The moment he heard two clicks he took off. Dipper felt a coil of anxiety as he passed the wreck. A man was standing holding his head. Dipper eyed the man’s car, checking over the damage again. Just as he passed, he caught a glimpse of a three pronged symbol on the back bumper. He shrugged, turning out of the parking lot.

The trip home was tense. Mabel stayed looking out the window with a pale complexion, Bill was the same, with a deep frown and furrowed brow. Dipper didn’t know what to say to break either out of their funk, so he decided silence would be his best option.

They got home without any further interruptions or complications. Everyone got out, still silent. Mabel grabbed onto Dipper’s arm, pulling him away from the shack.

“Bill can you- can you please give us a moment?” Mabel asked, still carting her brother away. The demon shrugged and went inside the shack.

“Mabel what’s-”

Mabel tackled into him with a hug.

“Mabel…”Dipper smiled sadly at his sister, wrapping his arms around her. “Do you want to talk about it yet?”

“Nuh-un.”she muffled into his chest with a shake of her head. Dipper patted her back and gave her a quick squeeze. What happened at the mall was...what Bill did...Dipper wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Bill had definitely saved him from- well, a lot of damage could have been done to him if Bill hadn’t man handled the car out of the way.

He didn’t trust the demon, and these newly outed powers of his made Dipper even more nervous. Or at least the extent of his powers.

Then again, Bill saved him...that counted for something, right?

Mabel sniffed once, releasing Dipper. She sniffed again and punched him in the arm.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again! If we’re going down, we go down together, you got me?!” She said, holding a fist up.

Dipper put up his hands defensively, “Yes, alright, yes! I understand, we go out together.”

Mabel smiled with another sniff, “Mystery twins?”

Dipper smiled back, “Mystery twins.” He agreed with a fist bump, “Now come on, let’s get back to Bill. Who knows what he’s done while we were gone.”

Bill hadn’t done anything, actually. They walked in to find him laughing at the gore horror film Drill III.

“Pine Tree, Shooting Star! I just found the funniest movie!” Bill said, scream and blood splatter sounds coming from the tv. Dipper paled while Mabel whooped and jumped onto the loveseat next to Bill.

“Oh that’s awesome, I hadn’t gotten to see this one yet!” Mabel said, tuning into the movie.

“Hehe- yeah, y-you- you guys enjoy that, I’m just going to be upstairs. Reading or- or something.”

“Oh, Pine Tree, does gore make you uncomfortable?” Bill asked with a devilish grin.

“Uncomfortable? More like super nauseous!” Mabel said with a laugh, “He becomes barf bag McBarffington when he watches this stuff!” Dipper narrowed his eyes before smirking at her.

“Oh do I?” he asked, before looking at the television and- oh. Oh holy fucking shit that was disgusting. He was going to be sick.  

Perfect.

Dipper broke eye contact going over to Mabel.

“No! No no no, don’t you dare!”

Dipper started retching in her direction.

“DIPPER PINES GET AWAY FROM ME!” Mabel screamed, hopping off the couch and running away from him. He laughed, still feeling awful, and...yeah, he was actually going to puke, he needed to get to the bathroom.

Their day went smoothly after that. Dipper ordered Grunkle Stan’s plane ticket and booked his hotel. Bill and Mabel watched the Drill series marathon, which apparently there were 7 movies total. Dipper moved most of Mabel’s furniture into the spare room she was now sleeping in, and got some time to himself to read and mess around on his laptop. Dipper moved his own clothes out of the closet and into his own dresser he’d previously not used. Bill would need the space to hang up all his fancy clothing.

By the time the marathon was finished, it was late at night and Dipper was starting to doze with a crime book in his hands. Bill coming into the room woke him up and he waved to the other a bit nervously. Bill’s grin widened a bit, before he set about removing his clothes. Dipper looked away to give the other privacy. He turned back when he heard Bill get into his bed.

“So, uh. About what you said earlier this morning…” Dipper started, not sure if he should be confrontational or not.

Bill sighed. He got up, much to Dipper’s embarrassment when he realize the other was only wearing his underwear. He flushed, turning toward the wall again.

“Geez Pine Tree, you'd do your sister nun's proud. ” Bill said. He took off Dipper’s hat, hanging it on the bed post before running his hand through Dipper’s hair.

The effect was odd and immediate. He felt a soothing relaxation trickle through his body from his head, like warm syrup sliding down his skin. Dipper shivered and wrapped himself tighter in his blanket.

“Go to sleep, Pine Tree.” Was the last thing Dipper heard, taking the advice to heart and quickly sinking into slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, sorry I'm posting this hella late! All the apologies.
> 
> Thank you everyone who commented! I keep reading them and then getting embarrassed and flustered and don't know how to respond so just thank you so much!
> 
> This chapter was based off a bit of a real life experience. Had a guy harass me and a group of friends in the mall and then call me and the sassiest man I've ever known faggots. It was...an interesting exchange. Didn't end as violently though. Also, the store names were fun to make.
> 
> Like always, sorry for any and all mistakes! Thank you so much for reading and I hope ya'll enjoy!!


	7. Sleep Over

The next morning, Dipper woke up lAte from a dreamless sleep, feeling more cognizant than he had for what was probably years. College had been a pretty stressful time, and had positively ruined what little sleep schedule he had.

Dipper walked downstairs, still in his pajamas, to find Mabel laughing. They were around the table, Mabel serving Bill something, probably face shaped. Bill would enjoy that, getting to eat himself.

“Oh Bro bro! You’re awake pretty early.” Mabel said, with a smile. She was still in her pajamas as well. Bill turned to him, thankfully dressed, grinning from ear to ear.

“Good morning, Pine Tree. I see you slept beautifully last night! Well, I can’t see it you still look like a sleepless wreck, but I did well! Now I’m going to eat myself!” Bill said, before taking a large bite out of a triangular shaped pancake. Something about all of this felt...surreal, like he just walked into an episode of the Twilight Zone. He was more conflicted than ever on Bill living with them. Mostly, because he found himself slowly starting to be okay with it.

“Alrighty Broski, what’ll it be for breakfast?” She asked, as Dipper entered the room sitting down at the table.

“Uhhh- how about an omelette if you don’t mind?” Dipper asked with a lazy smile.

“You got it, Dipping Sauce!” Mabel said, heading back towards the kitchen. Dipper’s smile grew a bit and he closed his eyes, resting his arms on the table, burying his head in them. He took in a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of being well rested and awake. Bill was making slurping noises as he ate his pancakes, and Dipper cracked an eye. He shook his head with a chuckle.

“Bill, typically, you’re suppose to use silverware.” Dipper said, closing his eyes again.

“Why? That’s boring and inefficient. Besides, how else am I going to get my hands all sticky so I can wipe them on you?”

Dipper snorted.

Wait, what?

Dipper cried out in shock as he felt sticky hands- Bill’s sticky syrup coated hands wiping themselves on his arm. He flailed in response, swatting away the demon’s hands. With an eye roll and one last look at Bill’s manic grin, Dipper fled the room, heading into the kitchen with Mabel.

“Oh hey Dipper! Weren’t you hanging with Bill?” Mabel asked as she added olives and peppers to his omelette.

“Yeah he just- I mean- hmm…he was just pranking me, not sure if I can take that from him this early in the morning.” Dipper said, heading to the sink to wash off the stickiness. She furrowed her brow, confused.

“What do you mean? You’re normally fine if I or Stan mess with you.”

Dipper rubbed at his arm. “Well, yeah but that’s you guys.”

“So what’s different about Bill?”

Dipper scratched at his hand. “Well it’s...it’s not that I don’t trust him-”

“But you don’t trust him?” Mabel asked. She didn’t have to look to know Dipper nodded. “Dipper, he tried to kill us both on multiple occasions, manipulated you, and you know just- loads of other terrible things.”

“Yeah, but he saved us both from that whole car thing, Mabel.” Dipper said, still not looking at his sister.

“Dipper…” She started turning to him, “You don’t have to feel guilty about not trusting him entirely even after that. He’s given us more than one reason to not trust him and you know I think it should at least be like, a one for one thing. So how many reasons do we have to mistrust him?”

“Well there was the sock puppets.”

“Yeah, and invading Grunkle Stan’s mind.”

“Stealing the reality shift portal, the Luxor Ouroboros, KBP Good Ole’ Days.”

“Locust 6698, Lazy Susan.”

Dipper shuttered when Mabel mentioned that one.“Alternate reality Gideon.” he said, trying to wrack his brain for anything else. Mabel handed him a plate with the omelette.

“Don’t forget Werewolf Wendy either.” Bill said, and both Mabel and Dipper turned in shock. Bill was standing the the doorway, an unamused smile on his face. “Sorry, just a reminder keep going though!” Both twins had enough modesty to look sheepish.

“Sorry, Bill.” “Sorry.” The twins said at the same time.

Bill walked into the room, sitting down at the table across from Dipper.

“So. What were you guys talking about?” Bill asked.

After a moments hesitation on both their parts, Dipper decided to answer first.

“We don’t know if we can trust you yet.” Dipper said confidently. Mabel nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, and we were just thinking back to all of ourrrr….” Mabel trailed off trying to think of a word that wasn’t insulting.

“Our games?” Bill suggested.

Dipper quickly took a bite of his omelette to cover from saying something uncouth.

“Well, I was thinking more like apocalyptic moments that forever changed my faith in the human race, but yeah games is like- close enough.” Mabel said with a fake snort of laughter.

Bill mulled this over in silence for a moment.

“Alright, well I’m turning over a new pine leaf here.” Bill said, his face serious, tone teasing, “I mean I already saved Pine Tree’s life, right? That’s gotta count for like, at least 4 of those other things. If we’re doing a one for one comparison.”

Mabel laughed genuinely this time, provoking a grin from Bill. Dipper felt like he was down playing his past behaviors towards them. It made him incredibly uncomfortable.

“Okay- Dipper, you’re working register today, alright?” Mabel reminded as she left the kitchen.

“Yes.” He called after her, slowly eating his omelette. Bill, stuck around in his seat, grin still on his face. Dipper furrowed his brow at him, a question popping into his mind.

“Bill, do you sleep at night?” Dipper asked.

The demon chuckled at him, “I’m glad you ask. I get a whole 2 hours. I even had time to pluck every hair off a spider opisthosoma.” Bill said leaning back in his chair.

Dipper stared at him, horrified.

“Hahahahaha! I’m just kidding, of course I sleep. Geez, kid, I knew you were gullible, but I didn’t realize it was this bad!”

Dipper frowned, but called it a victory nonetheless. Bill had answered his question in the end.

“Alright, it’s my turn.” Bill said. Dipper gave him a questioning look as he finished the rest of his omelette. “To ask a question. Let me think…”

Dipper snorted, rising to wash his plate, “Are you telling me you don’t know everything about me already?” Dipper asked sarcastically.

“Ah ah ah, one question at a time Pine Tree. Speaking of nightmares, what’s your favorite play?” Bill asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Dipper looked at him suspiciously. The change in Bill’s expression was subtle. He still wore a too-large grin, eye’s blown wide, posture lounging. His eyes were just a tad bit more narrow than normal, and there was a strain at the sides of his mouth that wasn’t there before.

“I don’t know...I’m not really into theater. Into the Woods I guess?” Dipper said, watching Bill for a reaction. The demon gave him a slightly surprised look before laughing hysterically. Dipper looked at him flatly.

“What, you don’t see the humor in this? Any of the irony?” Bill asked, continuing his laughter. Yes, Dipper saw the irony. No, it really wasn’t that funny.

“One question at a time, Bill.” Dipper said impatiently, heading out of the kitchen. Bill stopped laughing immediately.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“I have work, remember?” Dipper said, heading upstairs to get dressed. He got to his room, taking off his shirt, he started shimming out of his pajama pants when he heard the door creak. Dipper pulled them up, flipping around.

“Bill, seriously?! Privacy!” Dipper said, feeling exposed. He rushed over to the door, pushing Bill backward and slamming it closed. His face was on fire, and he bit his lip. With a deep breath, Dipper walked back to his cloths, shimming out of his sleep cloths. He threw on a t-shirt and shorts. When he opened the door, Dipper startled when he almost walked into Bill.

“Bill! What, are you trying to give _me_ a heartattack now?” Dipper said, pushing Bill out of his way. Bill followed after him as Dipper made his way downstairs.

“Bill, what do you want?” Dipper finally asked as Bill followed him out onto the gift shop store front.

Bill stared at him for a moment, his normal grin replaced with a distinct lack of expression.

“Bill, are you going-”

“Can I work here?” he asked, eyes looking off to the side.

Dipper frowned at him. Why was he asking? Was he…?

Bill was feeling insecure. And instead of acting out, he confronted his insecurity. Bill...trusted him, to some degree, or he would not have shown even an ounce of vulnerability.

He was not going to trampling or break that trust by teasing Bill, especially about something he was feeling insecure about. He’d had that done to him enough as it was.

Dipper smiled at the guy, lightly punching him in the arm, “Of course. That was part of the deal remember? You don’t get a choice in the end!” Dipper joked at him, heading for the register to make sure there was enough loose money to give out as change, “I’ll show you the ropes in a moment okay?” Dipper looked up briefly to see Bill wearing his grin. Though it certainly seemed to Dipper like it was more genuine.

Dipper ran Bill through the normal exchanges, the price of everything, how those prices were liable to ‘change,’ where the extra stock was, a few good techniques and things to say to get people to buy things, as well as a few ground rules Grunkle Stan put in place.

“And remember, above all, the moment they give us the money, no refunds at all.” Dipper said.

Bill picked up on everything quickly and with minimal commentary. Anything he did say was some kind of sass against Grunkle Stan and his ridiculously cheap ways. Mabel came in and checked on them occasionally, making sure Bill was behaving and Dipper wasn’t at his throat. Oddly enough, they were getting along. Dipper was even getting used to Bill’s permanent creepy smile.

Still, Dipper wasn’t sure if this was the greatest idea. This was Bill after all, and he could be...intense. But Bill wanted to live with them, and that meant working here.

With a deep breath, Dipper switched the sign on the door to open, letting Mabel know he was opening the Shack up.

 

“It’s official- you need people training.” Dipper said, as he locked the gift shop door.

“My people skills are superb thank you. Especially disemboweling them. I could demonstrate on a customer tomorrow-”

“No, no, stop, gross don’t.” Dipper said in aggravation over top what Bill was saying.

Bill had tried out quite a few things on the patrons. Popping his bones out of their socket was fun for him, but after the third time he bumped into someone and ‘dislocated’ his entire leg, Dipper was about done. And that was only the light things. Cutting a young females hair, attempting to booby trap the show floor to shoot sleeping darts (‘Where did you even get these?!’), and convincing a young couple this wasn’t reality and the only way to real reality was through ritual death by banana peel. That was just the more intentional stuff.

Apparently Bill didn’t know not to tell people their most glaring flaws or their loved ones impending deaths. At least, that’s what he told Dipper. Dipper decided Bill shouldn’t work the floor until they had some personal boundaries lessons.

“You’re no fun.” Bill said with a pout. Dipper rolled his eyes and walked into the house, collapsing onto the loveseat. He had been waiting all day for the sheriff or just- someone to show up. Between yesterday and Bill’s further disturbing behavior today, he had no idea how the police weren’t called. Then again, Blubs certainly wasn’t known for his detective work.

Dipper picked up one of the books he had lying around. He’d somehow gotten himself hooked on Patterson novels recently. Bill came over to him just a few moments later sitting on the skull facing Dipper.

Dipper tried to ignore him. Bill stared directly at his eyes, his grin never drooping. After fifteen minutes of this Bill finally spoke.

“Hey Pine Tree, want to hear a joke?” Bill asked.

“No.” Dipper replied flatly.

Bill ignored him, “What’s big and hairy, and about to be very uncomfortable?”

“Don’t care.” Dipper said, not paying attention to Bill.

Bill poked his foot. Dipper wasn’t particularly ticklish there, so continued reading and ignoring the man. Bill traveled upward to his ankle, poking there then got off the skull, poking him in the calf, then the knee, then his thigh-

Dipper freaked, and flailed about and fell off the couch.

“Bill!” Dipper said, getting up as the man laughed, “What do you want? Can’t you go bother Mabel or something?”

Bill shook his head, “No, she’s having” he sneered, “ _company_.”

Dipper scoffed settling back onto the couch, “Well whatever- go occupy yourself with something that _isn’t_ bothering me. And for future reference, that joke isn’t funny when you’re the one making me uncomfortable.”

Bill huffed and settled back on the skull. Dipper could see him counting on his fingers from the corner of his eye, and was confused. Dipper heard a loud bang reverberate throughout the house. It came from the front door. That could only have been-

“Grenda!”

“Mabel!”

“Girls!” He heard Mabel yell from her room. “Give me one second!”

Oh no...oh- now it all made sense. Mabel was having company, he was going to be uncomfortable. Mabel had a cast of course they were going to sleep over! Dipper scrambled off the chair trying to get out of the line of fire. Bill grabbed his hand, stopping Dipper from escaping.

“Bill! What are you doing?!” Dipper cried, trying to yank free of Bill’s grasp.

Bill grinned at him, “You weren’t going to introduce me?” He asked slyly and Dipper winced as Grenda pounded open the door, her and Candy coming into the room.

“Hey there Big Dipper~!” Grenda immediately said and Dipper groaned, “And who’s this new hunk?”

“Yes, you should introduce us!” Candy said both of them walking up to Bill. Bill had the most shit eating grin on his face and Dipper huffed in frustration.

“Bill, this is Grenda and Candy. Girls, Bill.” He said, pointing from one to next.

Bill stood giving an elegant bow to both girls, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet Mabel’s meat sack friends.”

Both girls giggled for some reason at that, Mabel finally coming out from her room and joining them.

“My friends!” She called out throwing her hands into the air. Both girls yelled her name, and the two men backed off as the females met for a group hug in the middle of the room. They giggled and Dipper started leaving, getting grabbed by Mabel just as he turned around.

“Dipper, where are you going?” Mabel asked, know full well.

Dipper sighed in resignation, “Just get to it Mabel.”

“Welllllllll, me and the girls here were thinking we could dress you up!” Mabel said.

“Yeah! I brought some of my old clothes over, Mabel said they’d be just your size!” Grenda said, holding up a large duffle bag. Dipper’s eyes bugged out of his head.

“Oh no, no no no way!” Dipper said. Bill was snickering at the edge of the room, and a plan hatched in Dipper’s mind, “Not unless we can put Bill in some of Mabel’s clothing.” He said with a smirk in the demon’s direction. For just a split second Bill’s smile faltered, before the grin was back up wider than before.

“Please, I think I’d hardly fit-”

“Please Bill!” Mabel said. Dipper almost laughed at how startled Bill was. She was using her eager face on him.

“Plllllleaasssssssse?” She whined.

Bill’s face changed drastically as the seconds went on. First confusion, then anger, then frustration. His posture was becoming tenser and tenser, he crossed his arms, even tried to look away. His brow furrowed, face scrunched, before he whirled around on Mabel.

“Stop it! Whatever mind powers you possess, stop using them immediately!” He yelled at her.

Mabel looked surprised for a moment, before her face was back and went from eager face to all out puppy-dog eyes.

Bil growled taking a deep breath, “Stop it stop it stop it stop it!!” He yelled and put both his hands over her face. She began whining.

Dipper was almost crying from laughter. He was bent over double his gut hurting, “Dude, just say yes already!” Dipper said between breaths.

Bill growled again before he threw his hands up, “Fine yes you and your stupid mind powers win!”

All three of the girls screeched in delight. Grenda grabbed her and Candy’s belongings, Candy hopping onto her back, as they dashed into Mabel’s room.

“Mabel bring the hot boys, we’re going to get things set up!” Grenda yelled.

Mabel’s eye twitched. It still bothered her just the smallest bit when Grenda and Candy called Dipper hot, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

“Alright boys, let’s lay down some ground rules.” Mabel said, twisting shoving both of them in front of her. “This is my special spend-the-night extravaganza with Candy and Grenda that they both had to get off of work for 2 days to spend with me. So that means neither of you too are going to fuck it up.” Mabel intonated, with a glare promising dark things if they did, “Do you understand?” Both men nodded, even Bill acting somewhat more tame than usual at Mabel’s harshness. She smiled at them sweetly with a nod. “Good then. Now, let’s go have a party!”

Mabel grabbed each of their hands leading them back into the abyss.

Mabel’s friends had gotten everything set up. On the bed were several outfits including dresses, tight fitting effeminate clothing, and even Grenda’s old softball uniform. Next to that pile, Candy had laid out several of Mabel’s dresses, some new, some old, as well as a few of her sweaters and skirts. They had set up two changing screens in opposite corners for their use.

“Alright boys! Let’s get this party started!” Grenda said, hitting a button on Mabel’s laptop, pop music immediately blaring from it. Bill winced, but continued to scowl.

“Here start with this!” Mabel said, handing Dipper deep red dress with a wide halter top and shoulder sleeves. It had a beaded belt and a clutch that was suppose to go with it, though Mabel left them aside.

“And Billy,” Candy started.

“It’s Bill!” Bill snarled. Mabel shot him a quick glare and Bill withdrew, though still scowling.

“He can start with this!” Candy said holding up a pink skirt and matching sweater with an elephant on it. The elephant was turned side ways, its trunk becoming one of the sleeves.

“Yes, that’s perfect. Now go get dressed!” Mabel commanded cheerfully. Both men grumbled, going to different screens.

Dipper started shedding his clothing, throwing it over the side of the screen. They put up hangers as a just in case which, although thoughtful, he couldn’t particularly appreciate at the moment. Only in his boxer briefs Dipper blushed as he looked at the dress. He unzipped the back starting to put it on. Gods, why did Grenda still even have this? This color and style was ridiculously last year-it was actually painful for him. Did she even know what neutral tones were?

He reached around zipping up the back on his own. He didn’t have to hold the dress up, but it didn’t fit him particularly well. Though knowing Mabel, she’d have pins ready to get it to fit him.

“Come on out Dipper, I heard you zip it up!” Mabel said and he flinched. Well, he could still try to get out of it.

“Mabel, do I really have to…”

“I said march bucko!”

Dipper sighed, coming out from behind the screen. He sent a quick glare at Bill as the girls giggled in delight. Mabel got up from her seat.

“Okay okay! Wait there just one second, I know I have safety pins here somewhere! And girls, take off that ridiculous hat of his for me!” Mabel said, looking around the room.

Candy and Grenda, meanwhile had come over to him. Grenda easily held him down while Candy jumped and grabbed his hat.

“Hey, give that back! Mabel, is that really necessary?” Dipper asked, exasperated.

“Trust me Pine Tree, that hat is atrocious. It’s made perfect for you.” Bill came out from behind the screen his scowl gone. He looked contemplative, swishing his skirt around.

The girls immediately ran over to him giggling about how his ‘legs were so smooth!’ and how ‘I wish I looked that good in pink!’ Dipper scoffed, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

“Okay, come here so I can get that dress of yours pinned up!” Mabel said. Dipper grumbled but did as he was told as Candy and Grenda continued praising Bill.  He stood by her bed where she was sitting with a container of pins at the ready. Mabel started bunching up along the hem of the dress.

“He’s not doing too badly with them.” She said quietly. Dipper glanced at the trio talking animatedly about clothing, Grenda and Candy both holding up outfits for him to try on next. Bill, meanwhile actually seemed...to be enjoying himself. He was making jokes along with them, smiling and continually looking down at himself and the clothes he was wearing.

“Yeah...it’s really weird.” Dipper said honestly, holding still to let his sister work.

“I don’t- can you help me with this?” Her cast was making things difficult. He lent his hand in getting a small pin closed, “I don’t think so actually.” Mabel admitted. Dipper was disturbed by that, and turned around to look at her.

“Mabel, how can you say that, you know who this is.” Dipper whispered to make sure he wasn’t being loud. Mabel leaned her head.

“I know but, think about it. We never actually saw Bill from day to day it was always just, ‘oh at this moment when he’s trying to end the world!’ or whatever. Maybe he is actually just a...not normal exactly, but- you know, a guy. A person.”

Dipper shook his head. They’d already been down this road once with Bill and it didn’t lead them anywhere good.

“Mabel, you know what happened last time one of us thought that.” Dipper said, throwing himself under the bus, “All we learned was that demons literally don’t have souls.” He turned around to look at his sister as she finished the last pin. She chewed her lip not meeting his gaze.

“Oh these are nice!” Bill exclaimed, twirling around. He had a different outfit on, a 90’s print theme sweater with the words ‘Cray-Zee Klub!’ on it, a purple skirt and-

“Why do you still even have those?!” Dipper turned on Mabel. She laughed in response. Nebula print thigh highs. Dipper blushed burying his face in his hands, which only made Mabel laughed louder.

“Why did he get all blushy so suddenly?” Grenda asked. Mabel settled down to tell, but Dipper covered her mouth with his hand.

“Don’t you even think about it Mabel.” He said. Her eyes squinted in a mischievous smile, and she drummed her fingers against his side. He immediately fell to the ground in a fit of laughter at having been tickled.

“Mabel-!”

“They’re technically Dipper’s cause his girlfriend in highschool bought them for him cause she was into that and Grunkle Stan found them and he said they were mine as cover and I think they rock so I kept them!” She got out all in one breath. The other girls laughed with Mabel, and Dipper groaned.

“Well I like them as well. They’re so comfy. Can I keep them?” Bill asked Mabel.

“NO-!”

“Why of course you can Bill! I always meant to wear them, but I never got around to it.” Mabel said. Both her and Dipper knew she was talking about never dating anyone.

“Well I will definitely be wearing these often!” Bill said with a grin, “Female clothing is superb! Why haven’t I tried this stuff on before?”

Dipper rolled his eyes, “Because you’ve only been a living body for, what, 3 days?” Dipper said, still on the floor and flustered. The girls stopped their laughing and looked between Bill and Dipper.

“Err, w-what my brother means-! Bill’s just-” Mabel stammered trying to make up for her brother’s slip.

“I just moved in recently and have only been living here for 3 days.” Bill said, “Dipper asked me to, but I can’t give you any more details than that.” Both girls eyes went wide in curiosity. Dipper and Mabel let out a sigh of relief, Mabel sending a dark glare in Dipper’s direction. Dipper sheepishly stood, the red gown still pinned up.

Mabel cleared her throat, “So what do you think girls?”

Dipper felt on the spot as both Grenda and Candy walked over to him with ohh’s and giggles.

“Oh, I know what will make it complete!” Grenda said, “We should shave him!”

“What?!”

“Ohhh, that’s a good idea Grenda!” Mabel said shooting him a dark grin.

“I agree! The meat sack body hair is really unappealing.” Bill stated.

Dipper huffed at him, “That’s just because you-!” Mabel hummed at him in warning anticipating him speaking out again, “Because you were born with none.”

Candy had caught Dipper distracted and he jumped in the air when he felt two small hands on his butt. Everyone laughed, except Dipper who was blushing like mad at the very manly not-squeak he made.

“Oh come now Pine Tree, girls will be girls!” He said cheerily coming up to Dipper and elbowing him with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

“I’m going to murder you.” Dipper hissed

Bill smacked him in the arm. Hard. “Oh, Pine Tree, you flirt!”

“No, I’m drawing the line at anything to do with shaving. I worked hard to get this body hair.” And boy did they have no idea just how hard that was. Speaking of, he really needed to go say hi to the Multi-Bear at some point soon.

“Oh alright Dipper, like anyone would actually want to shave your gross body hair.”

“I would like to do a lot of things to his body hair.” Candy said with a giggle. Everyone stared at each other awkwardly for a moment, even Bill, before Mabel moved the conversation forward.

“Sooooooooo, what should we have Dipper try on next?”

It was awful. Grenda’s old clothing smelled weirdly of sweat and cupcakes which was an incredibly unappealing mix. He refused to try on the softball outfit and had to stop Candy from spying on him while he was changing. Granted, so did Bill. Candy was such a freak.

All of the dresses he wore ended up having to be pinned by Mabel, and eventually all the girls joined them in dressing up in outfits, even Candy who grabbed some of Mabel’s old clothes from early high school.

That was how they spent most of their evening, ordering a pizza for very late dinner and thankfully not getting any of their clothes dirty. Bill and the girls, weirdly enough, got along fantastically even with all the weird stuff he said. But then again, the three of them were oddballs enough, he probably fit right in.

Still, it left Dipper feeling weirdly isolated and just an hour after they had pizza he wanted to scramble up to his room. Mabel, thank everything, let him go and he quickly changed out of the dolphin onesie he was in (he was almost certain Mabel had taken pictures of him) into his normal clothes and gone up to his room.

Dipper was reading when Bill came in about an hour later, no longer dressed up. Dipper made a quick note of Bill’s presence and the time (almost midnight) before he reconcentrated on his reading.

Sensing Bill by his bedside, Dipper looked up at the other’s curious expression, “What?” Dipper asked.

“You’re not tense around me like you normally are.” Bill said to him.

Dipper thought about it for a moment, “No...no I guess not.” he said with a shrug going back to his book. Bill hummed in thought.

“I’m going to have to up my game!” Bill said.

“What?” Dipper perked up, before a hand was running through his hair soothingly, the same warm trickling running down his body.

“Good night Pine Tree!” for half a moment he was scared, but then the soothing feeling washed away any care he had and Dipper fell into a dreamless, deep slumber.

 

 


	8. Things Bill Cipher is Restricted from Doing

 

Things Bill Cipher is RestricTed from Doing

  1. Hang from the ceiling fan until he vomits

  2. Hang any animal from the ceiling fan until they vomit

  3. Throw objects off the roof at pedestrians

  4. Attempt to melt anything for “testing of viscosity”

  5. Attempt to melt anything for any reason at all

  6. Convert people to “The Cult of the Divine Triangle”

  7. Purposefully break the Stanford bobbleheads

  8. Try and change the order to make it Bill bobbleheads instead

  9. Persuade the children to become his personal army

  10. Eat raw possum

  11. Hold out any extended noise for more than 4 seconds

  12. GET ANYWHERE NEAR MABEL’S SPARKLE COLLECTION

  13. Promise lifetime supplies of any snack food to tourists for ANY reason

  14. Put anything bigger than a cotton swab into his nose (I still don’t get how 7 grapes fit in there I've never gotten more than 2)

  15. Use the computer at all (Don’t even look at it, Bill!!)

  16. Refer to himself as The One True Forgotten Monarch of The United States

  17. Strip off any clothing for any reason in public other than going to bed at night after 8pm

  18. ALLOWED EVEN CLOSE TO MARGARITAS

  19. Lead tourists children into a “Pit of Despair” and attempt to provoke them to run a deadly obstacle course

  20. Lead tourists children into a “Kinder Coliseum” and attempt to provoke them into fighting one another to the death

  21. Give animal intestines as gifts to ANYONE

  22. Put mustaches on the faces of Mabel’s posters

  23. Spy on Old Man McGucket until he babbles incoherently about triangles

  24. Make any puns about the name of the town and its irony (Bill we get the joke already you don’t have to spell it out that much.)

  25. Dress up as Hitler with oven mitts and call out “Hiel Mittler!” around town.

  26. Attempt to drain the entire water tower

  27. Cocerce resident children into getting into the water tower claiming it is a waterpark

  28. PLAY RISING SHEPARD TONES FOR MORE THAN ~~FIFTEEN~~ ~~TEN~~ EVER. NEVER EVER.

  29. Try and surprise Dipper with a fake new album by Icelandic Pop Sensation BABBA.

  30. Dress up as a gnome and try and start a gnome uprising.

  31. Lure a Lepracorn ANYWHERE close to the Mystery Shack again! (Seriously, it almost got Waddles!)

  32. Attempt to feed Waddles pork (That was not cool Bill!!)

  33. HAVE A NEST OF ROACHES UNDER HIS BED (SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK BILL?)

  34. No drawing erect penises on random objects and then snickering about porn.

  35. Just no insects. Or bugs. Or anything bug or insect related that might not specifically fall into either category. None of them are to be brought into the house at all ever.

  36. Rule 35 now covers all poisonous creatures

  37. And toxic creatures

  38. BRING ANY LIVING THING INTO THE HOUSE



 39. Bill isn't allowed to tell anyone the time and place of their death OR the time and place of their children's death OR their children's children. (Bill enough with being a living death timer!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guy! Just kinda stopping into to say that this fic is most certainly not dead! Personal life has been a bit crazy this past month! I've started a DMing DnD campaign, got a part time job, got a kidney stone, and am on a new ranked team of Leagues that is kinda super cereal. (Not like really super cereal, but they wanna do well in ranked and yada yada.) So! I;m slowly crunching out the fic and didn't want to leave you guys with nothing so here's a tiny short little anecdotal thing! 
> 
> I wanted to kinda make this a bit of a living thing! So! 1. if any of you other authors out there want to put something similar in your fics totally do so! I feel like it could be a lot of fun! and 2. If you guys want to leave comments suggesting things that can be added, by all means please super do so! I'll add them to the list and we can kind of make this big huge list of crap Bill Cipher needs to stop freaking doing. Either leave a comment or message me on tumblr ( citrusmewtwist.tumblr.com ) and I'll put it on here. I'll get a more story based chapter up soon i promise!


	9. All of the Hurt

Dipper woke up on the next SundaY late in the morning. He sat up with a stretch and a smile, yawning widely and feeling refreshed. Bill had been staying with them for just over two weeks now. Every night before he went to bed himself, Bill combed his hand through Dipper’s hair, doing his magic thing and putting Dipper into a dreamless sleep.

Bill wasn’t lying when he said he was going to up his game, and he’d been keeping both him and Mabel on their toes. They tried to predict as best they could what crazy things he was going to do, but unfortunately they were rarely successful at stopping Bill before he got out of hand. Beyond that though…

Dipper looked at the demon in question still fast asleep and snoring like usual. The only time he really misbehaved a whole lot was when other people were around and he was unoccupied, like when they had tourists come in or went out in public. Still, Bill seemed to be getting a little better at controlling himself. There weren’t any more murder traps...as far as Dipper knew.

Bill had also started doing this weird thing where he would go out of his way to include Dipper in things.

Mabel had pointed it out to him.

Bill and Mabel had become fast friends after the sleepover, their off the wall personalities meshing well. Dipper had slowly gotten used to it, and would often ignore them and stew in his own mind about whatever he felt like. Like when they had gone out to eat at the diner. The two of them had started talking about some show Dipper didn’t care about. He went right into thinking on his own, staring out the window.

“What do you think, Pine Tree?” It had caught Dipper off guard, and he stared blankly at Bill for a few moments.

“Um...about what?” he asked.

“Geez you can’t eat, think, solve one of your mystery books, and pay attention to me all at the same time? Such a human.” Bill said taking a bit of a few fries. Dipper gave him a flat look.

“Did you want some actual food with your ketchup or should I get you an extra spoon so you can eat it raw?” Dipper teased him cheekily. Bill simply stuck out his tongue and half chewed food in Dipper’s direction, which had both twins cringing and chuckling at him, swatting at him like they would each other.

Ever since then, whenever Bill saw Dipper getting lost in thought Bill would say something to tease him. It wasn’t ever mean, though he occasionally toed that border. It led to Dipper putting down the last of his barriers. He would admit, he was starting to truly trust Bill. The sense of dread, waiting for the other shoe to drop, was dissipating. It was still there, when Bill did something crazy at the Shack during a tour, or when he took a joke too far.

But Dipper trusted Bill. And as weird and absolutely insane as that sounded in his own mind, and maybe he should hit himself with a mallet or jump off the roof or something- by Grabthar’s Hammer, he actually trusted Bill.

Dipper snorted as the ridiculousness of it all, getting out of bed quietly so as not to disturb Bill. He grabbed clean clothes, heading to the bathroom for a shower.

Dipper turned the shower on, shedding his pajamas and hopping into the still warming water. He started shampooing his hair, humming to himself.

“Do-do-do Do-do do-do-do-do-doo~!” Dipper started singing.

“It's the Big Dipper! Coming to save the day, keeping dark fiends and ghosts away Dun- dun! Dun-dun! Dun- dodododododooooo.”

Dipper got a washcloth, his other hand using the shampoo bottle as a microphone.

“Here comes Big Dipper! He'll stop their evil plan! Solving mysteries best he can! Here comes Big Dipperrrr! Do dun dun do do dun dun do do-!”

“Pffffft!”

Dipper startled with a cry, slipping on the tub and barely catching himself on the door, which promptly popped off its hinge. Half of it slid outside the tub jamming against the tile floor, the other was propped against the lip of the tub, angled upward covering most of Dipper’s body.

“BILL!!!” Dipper roared...though it might have been a bit high pitched.

“Hey ya Pine Tree! That was definitely one catchy song, why’d you stop?”

Dipper fumed, covering himself with his hands, his face on fire from embarrassment.

“Bill, if you don’t GET OUT RIGHT NOW!” Dipper shouted.

“What is going on-Dipper!” Mabel stopped, wide eyed at the scene before her. “Are you alright?”

“Shooting Star, you won’t believe what I heard Dipper singing in the shower! Hahaha!”

“WILL YOU BOTH JUST LEAVE?!” Dipper said, livid. This wasn’t happening. He wasn’t sitting pathetic and naked in his shower with a demon and his sister looking over him.

“I bet it sounded better than your snoring.” She said rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. Bill shot her a look of confused horror.

“What? I do _not_ snore!” Bill turned away from Dipper.

“Yes you do! It’s awful, it sounds like a decaying walrus. Like, snnnnnnnnnnkbwooooooooahw.

“I do not sound anything like that!” Bill said with a glare, attention entirely on Mabel. He owed her for this. Big time.

“Bill, Wendy called me up and told me she could hear…” Dipper heard Mabel start as she walked further into the house, distracting Bill to give Dipper some peace and quiet. Bill followed her actively debating about his snoring.

Dipper rushed to get out of the tub, closing and re-locking the bathroom door, before turning off the water. It took him a few minutes to fix the bath door, but he managed.

God, this is what it was like with Bill. All. The. _Time_.

Dipper got dressed in his clean clothes after straightening out the bathroom a little more, and then went for breakfast.

Bill was at the stove helping Mabel cook. They had apparently made up, talking animatedly about something to do with the application of sprinkles. Dipper sat at the table, putting his chin on his hand.

His relationship with Bill was getting weird. He found himself forgiving Bill for things, like interrupting his shower. Yeah, he was still a little miffed about it, but at the same time, he was pretty much over it. Yeah, it was kind of a douche thing to do, but he was still learning proper boundaries, right? And it was harmless in the end, no one got hurt.

This was weird for him. His family, Soos, and Wendy were the only people he was really used to forgiving so easily. He guessed Pacifica was on that list too, but they hadn’t really seen-

Flecks of water hitting his face broke his thought process.

“Pine Tree, make yourself useful and help Mabel cook.”

Dipper frowned and rolled his eyes, getting up from the table and taking the pancakes from Bill. Bill shifted over slightly moving to toast some bread. Mabel was waiting patiently on Dipper’s other side for the current pancakes to be done so she could add more batter, not-so-slyly sneaking scraps to Waddles who was sitting contentedly at her feet.

“Hey Dipper, you’re forgetting something in those pancakes.” Mabel said. Dipper perked a brow in confusion lifting up the pan and looking, trying to figure out what he missed. “They need just a bit more, _respect_!” Mabel said, shoving her hip into his side. He slammed into Bill, laughing at her hip bump.

“Hey, watch it!” Bill said with a frown at the two of them. Dipper ignored him, grinning back at Mabel.

“I don’t know, I think it has just the perfect amount of - _respect_!” Dipper said, hip bumping her back. She grabbed onto the over handle laughing as she careened to the side, Dipper laughing with her.

“But Dipper, you can never have enough respec-!” Mabel said, trying to hip bump him back again. Dipper dodged backward out of the way, and Mabel went stumbling into Bill with a surprised gasp. She caught herself on Bill, and he shot them both a scowl. Dipper couldn’t help but let out another laugh.

“What are you two doing?” Bill said, confused at their game.

Mabel got off him, returning back to Dipper’s right. The twins shared a grin, before Dipper turned back to Bill.

“Oh nothing, were just showing each other some respect!” Dipper said, nailing Bill with his hip, hard. Bill, not expecting it, stumbled and fell, the first unelegant moment Dipper had ever seen him in. Bill looked at him stunned while both Dipper and Mabel howled with laughter, his derpy expression only adding to their delight.

Dipper put out a hand to help BIll up, which he ignored with a fierce glare. Dipper turned back to the pancakes as Bill rose on his own. He turned back to the toast, accidently crumpling a piece as he buttered it. Dipper put another stack of pancakes on the growing pile. Mabel started on another masterpiece pancake.

Dipper looked at Bill, to see the other still scowling as he crumbled yet another piece of toast and...was that a blush? Bill had pretty tan skin, so it was hard to tell, but that certainly...he tapped his sister, motioning to Bill. She looked puzzled.

“Hey Billlllll~.” Mabel said, trying to get his attention.

Bill ignored her.

“Bill.” Dipper tried, still being ignored.

Dipper deflated a bit, an exasperated smile coming onto his face. He gave a nod to Mabel. She shook her head. He frowned tapping his ear. She rolled her eyes before shrugging, to which he nodded in return.

“Bill, come on, everyone gets embarrassed.” Mabel tried one last time to get him to open up. He still ignored them.

With a sigh, Dipper sucked in a huge breath, put his fingers between his lips and whistled. It pierced his own ears, and he could feel them start to hurt at the noise. Mabel covered her ears, and Waddles squealed and darted out of the room. Bill jumped at the loud noise, immediately reaching to cover Dipper’s mouth. He wasn’t looking at Dipper.

“Alright Pine Tree, just stop making that noise.” Bill said.

“Bill, what’s going on I mean yeah you fell over and all, but it wasn’t that big a deal.” Mabel said with a shrug and a smile. Bill continued scowling, leaving what she said to hang in the air.

“Shooting Star, can you- can you please give us a moment?” Bill asked, looking past Dipper at her. Both of them were baffled by that, sharing quick look before Mabel nodded.

“Y-yeah, of course Bill! Let me know when everything- when you’re good to go!” She said, her confusion bleeding into her attempted enthusiasm.

Mabel left the room, heading into the living room. Bill waited a moment, listening to her steps, before he rounded on Dipper. He grabbed Dipper’s forearms, glaring into his eyes fiercely. Dipper startled and had to control the reflex to throw Bill over his back and pin him to the ground.

“I feel like there’s a fire in my face. And I don’t like admitting that.” Bill grounded out after things were just starting to get awkward.

Dipper attempted to relaxed his body, with a slight nod.

“You’re feeling embarrassment and probably a small bit of shame and frustration.” Dipper explained, “The fall probably caused it, you’re always so-”

“Nope.” Bill said with a shake of his head.

“Nope. Soooo, what exactly did cause it?”

“Well- actually yeah sure. It was that. Problem solved.” Bill said, letting go of Dipper. He turned back to the food, flipping the pancakes that Dipper had forgotten. “Come on now Pine Tree, you should be paying attention.”

“I am Bill. And you’re not subverting me from this.” Dipper said simply. He crossed his arms and leaned against the stove waiting for Bill to speak up.

“I have no idea what you mean-” Bill started, crossing his own arms defensively.

“Bill.”

“-it’s like I already told you; you caught me! I fell down, couldn’t-

“Bill.”

“-catch myself or anything. A moment of clumsiness, a moment-”

“Bill.”

“STOP SAYING MY NAME LIKE THAT!” Bill screamed at him, eyes and hair flaring red. Dipper was expecting it, and made sure to steel himself but a huge shot of adrenaline ran through his system.

“Like what?” Dipper asked.

“Like you know everything that’s wrong!” Bill fumed smacking the pan and batter off the stove, “And just standing there with- with that _look_ , like you want to help or something, stop it!”

“Did it ever occur to you that I _do_ want to help?” Dipper asked, picking up the pan and putting it in the sink. Well, looks like no more pancakes for now.

“And maybe I don’t want it! There’s nothing you can do to help! I’m a being of infinite knowledge! I can help myself!” Bill yelled at him, arms crossed again.

“Seriously Bill? I’m not here to undermine you! You’re upset and I want to help with that!” Dipper said, exasperated.

“And what exactly are you going to do? I’m an all powerful demon, you’re just some little kid.” Bill mocked.  

Dipper rolled his eyes. Bill was trying to get him mad to distract him. Again. Dipper had a plan though. This- was going to be somewhat uncomfortable, but he never backed down from proving a point.

“Okay, I’m going to do something so just- don’t freak out or anything, okay?” Dipper said, moving a step forward. Bill rolled his eyes.

“Just do whatever it is Pine Tree.” Bill said impatiently.

Dipper smiled, reaching out to firmly hug Bill, his arms wrapping around under the other’s. Dipper hugged him firmly, turning his head sideways into Bill’s shoulder. He closed his eyes, giving the other a small squeeze.

“What are you doing?” Bill asked indignantly. Dipper registered his voice was calmer.

Another moment passed by before Bill spoke again, “This is gross, can we stop?”

Dipper chuckled, but hugged him just a bit tighter. He hoped this would work like he thought it might. Slowly, very slowly, he felt Bill’s arms moving, hesitant. First he put his hands on Dipper’s sides, then his shoulders. Slowly, Bill’s arms awkwardly wrapped around Dippers head. He arched his body over Dipper’s and hugged Dipper’s head close to his chest. It caused his body to arch away from where Dipper was hugging him.

Dipper silently started laughing at Bill’s weird attempt at a hug. When he could finally keep his composure, Dipper took in a breath to ask the other.

“So, do you want to tell me what was bothering you?”

Bill sighed, and tightened his grip on Dipper’s head. He let out another sigh before he started talking.

“Part of it was I didn’t understand what you two were doing, but it was-there’s more to it than that.”

“Okay, um...” Dipper wasn’t sure how to proceed. He wasn’t really the best at this sort of thing, “What...the mystery emotion, how did it make you feel?”

Dipper felt Bill’s mouth pull into a deeper frown. “I...wanted to punch both of you and pout in the other room.”

That really didn’t tell him much.

Combinations of sad and frustrated.

“Were you feeling...ashamed?” Dipper tried.

Bill snorted at him.

“Yeah let me thinkno.” Bill said with contempt. Dipper frowned but let the comment slide.

“Well how about, uh...jealousy?” Dipper asked.

Bill lingered on that one a moment, humming as if tasting a pricey wine. Dipper waited patiently as Bill bobbed his head a bit in thought.

“Nope.” He said, “Though I think that’s a bit closer.”

“How is it closer?”

“I wasn’t jealous of or for either of you it was more- I didn’t understand what you were doing and wanted to. And the more I didn’t understand, the more... _feelings_ I got.” Bill said, emphasising the word feelings as if it a vile enemy.

It gave Dipper pause. He knew demons had limited emotions, but it sounded like Bill was gaining emotion...He would analyze this information later. Right now, he needed to deal with Bill.

“Hmmm…” Dipper scrunched his own brow in thought, “So you felt more frustration and hurt when…” was Bill maybe feeling left out? That didn’t make a lot of sense, but maybe.

“Bill, were you feeling left out?” Dipper asked.

“Yes.” Bill said immediately with a small nod. Dipper huffed in exasperation.

“But I- I’m confused. I included you in what we were doing, with the whole joke and everything.” Dipper said, a bit defensively.

Bill grumbled, annoyed.

“And how would you like it if I included you in a game of ‘Swat the Human Entrails’ and you didn’t know how to play?”

Dipper sighed nodding his head. He felt a weight drop to his stomach as he realized the position he and Mabel had put Bill in.

“I would feel left out and frustrated.” He admitted. “I’m sorry for doing that to you. To explain ‘respect’: it’s literally just a stupid thing we started doing to each other in high school. You just hip bump someone and say ‘respect.’ I have no idea how or why we started, or why respect, but that’s what it is.”

“Apology accepted.” Bill said, “Also, you humans are stupid.”

Dipper chuckled. He could tell by Bill’s voice that he was joking, at least a little. The weight in his stomach lessened, and he gave Bill a small squeeze.

Dipper then realized he and Bill were still embracing.

Dipper blushed faintly. He thought for sure the demon would have broken contact by now but. Well whatever.  

Dipper patted Bill on the back, ready to let go. Dipper started to, but Bill continued to hold onto him. At that Dipper returned the hug, looking around awkwardly, silence now over taking them. He chewed at his lip and tapped his foot waiting for Bill to be done with the embrace.

Dipper tried again, tapping his back a few times even giving Bill an, “Alright, bud.” Bill didn’t let him go. Dipper ended up re-returning the hug, now a bit frustrated at Bill’s lack of social awareness. Or maybe Bill was just ignoring it. That would be a very Bill like thing to do.

“You smell nice, Pine Tree.” Bill said as a passing comment, his head on top of Dipper’s.

Okay, that’s where he drew the line.

“Alllllrighty now Bill,” Dipper started, blush deepening and a rolling pit of embarrassment settling in his stomach. He took Bill’s hands in his own to peel the other man off of him, “Okay, yeah let’s- just- yes.” Dipper said, awkwardly disentangling himself from Bill’s grasp, “We’ve left Mabel for a long time I’m going to just- yeah.” Dipper said as he backed out of the room. He ran into the door, then the door jamb before making it outside the kitchen.

Mabel darted over to him.

“Is everything okay? I heard the shouting and the noise and then everything got quiet, but I didn’t want to break my word and-” She asked in a hurried whisper.

Dipper stopped his sister’s worry, “Mabel, it’s okay, everything’s fine.” Mabel visibly relaxed at that, “Bill was just...himself.” Dipper concluded. That was pretty accurate for that entire encounter.

Mabel worried at her lip and crossed her arms. Dipper rolled his eyes as she pointedly looked away from him.

“Just say it Mabel.”

“I just don’t understand why he’d ask for you over me.” Mabel pouted. The blush and rolling pit back in place.

“Seriously Mabel? He’s an insane dream demon, not our nephew or kid or something.” Dipper said with a roll of his eyes, “Besides he does everything with you. You guys spent literally all day yesterday just talking. It’s probably one of those crazy ‘I’m really close with you so it’ll hurt more for me to tell you’ things or something.” Dipper said, turning around. “Now come on, we have pancakes to eat.

Mabel grumbled but followed him back into the kitchen anyway. Dipper went straight for the plate of pancakes, hungry as anything and wanting to get started. Mabel, however, had plans of her own.

“Bill, do you favor Dipper?” Mabel asked as she stomped into the room.

Bill snorted.

“Mabel, of course-”

“Of course I do! He’s my favorite!” Bill said cheerfully, over top Dipper.

“AH-HA!! I knew it!” Mabel said, pointing at Dipper. Dipper reddened further and bristled, the tearing at his innards. How the heck was he Bill’s favorite? They had nothing in common! Especially compared to Mabel!

“Bill that makes literally zero sense.” Dipper said, uncomfortable at the situation.

“Pfft, you’ve always been my favorite Pine Tree!” Bill said, walking over to the table where Dipper stood with plates and silverware. “Why do you think I wanted into your head so desperately?” He poked Dipper’s forehead for emphasis.

Dipper gapped at him.

“Ugh! Boys are so dumb!” Mabel said. She stomped into the room, flopping into the chair and pouting.

“Mabel please…” Dipper said, trying to placate her. She harumphed at him as if this were _his_ fault.

“Shooting Star, yeah I like Pine Tree more, but you like him more too, right?” Bill said, as he sat down, helping himself to pancakes. That gave her enough pause to stop pouting.

“That’s- yeah, I guess that is true…” She said sheepishly, rubbing at her arm.

“Of course it’s true, I’m incredible and always right! So we’re agreed- we both like Pine Tree more than each other.” Bill said taking a bite out of his pancakes.

Dipper was astounded again by Bill and his communication and...not empathy, but he clearly tried to diffuse the situation in a non-violent way. It put a smile on Dipper’s face, even amidst his own rising inner turmoil and flushed face.

Bill’s eye shot open in his manic grin.

“And we’ll fight to the death over him.”

Yep, there’s the Bill he expected.

And there went any emotional turmoil over being Bill’s ‘favorite.’

Mabel immediately stood on her chair grabbing a fork in one hand, and a spoon in the other, “You’re on! It’s a fight to the death for Dipper’s innocence!” She called out.

“Seriously? My innocence? And no! No fighting to the death!” Dipper said, grabbing his sister under the arms and situating her back on the chair the right way.

She laughed helping herself to pancakes as Dipper took a seat between them. Conversation devolved into more normal before they got ready for work.

Work was much like normal- Mabel gave a tour, Dipper worked register, and Bill did...Bill things. His official job was restocking and helping with the mystique of tours. Which meant Bill saying something weird, grotesque, or otherwise offensive.

Grunkle Stan often mentioned how idiotic the people who visited the Mystery Shack were. And holy shit was he right, no more evident in their reactions to the shit Bill said.

“And here we see copies of your pathetic flesh bag eyes! Does anyone else know the eleven steps to plucking out someone’s eye with a pencil case?”

The group following him would laugh and each pay for whatever bauble he was attempting to sell. Dipper didn’t understand how Bill being creepy was funny.

Dipper just finished with a customer, watching Bill lead people around the gift shop, when familiar dirty blonde hair came into view.

“Heya, Derper!”

Dipper looked up to see Tina across from him. He put on a smile, inwardly sighing.

“Not fond of the new nickname.” He said. She laughed and batted his hand at him.

“Oh, please, I’m just teasing.” She said with an eye roll, “I’m sure it won’t stick.”

He hoped not. “What are you doing here though?” He asked.

“What, I can’t visit my favorite Mystery Shack employee?” she asked with a wide smile and a giggle. Dipper chuckled back nervously opening his mouth to speak-

“Oh, and here I thought I was your favorite employee!” Bill said from behind Tina. She visibly tensed, brow furrowing slightly. She didn’t turn around.

“So! I wanted to ask if you’d like to have dinner tonight! I asked your sister, she said you didn’t have anything going on.”

Damnit Mabel. He laughed awkwardly at nothing, an awkwardness which she didn’t seem to pick up on.

“Well, uh, heh, I-I was thinking-

“He’s busy.” Bill said, no longer smiling, still standing behind her, crossing his arms. Dipper gulped registering the change immediately. He went from passive aggressive cheer to full on threatening in two seconds flat.

Tina continued to ignore him.

“You were thinking yes right?”

Dipper’s grin grew wider and manic as he looked between Bill and Tina feeling trapped. He felt sweat on the back of his neck his, stomach circling into tight knots. Bill narrowed his eyes walking into the living room. Somehow this only made Dipper more anxious, and he turned his attention back to Tina.

“Haha- well, look at the time-! It’s nearly...three o’clock, my dinner hour I’m-”

“Listen, it will really be a fun time just come over-”

“Hey Pine Tree! Look at this!” Bill said. Dipper gasped and reached out a hand in vain.

“Bill don’t-!” Dipper said as Tina turned around, curious.

Bill dumped the fish tank on Tina’s head.

Water flushed over Tina, along with pebbles from the bottom of the tank, and the few decorations they had in it. Dipper stared wide eyed in shock, patrons darted away from the pool of water that formed by everything that wasn’t on Tina. She turned around to Bill dripping water into the large puddle around her.

“You- and with-” Tina sputtered, soaking wet and shaking from the chill.

“That will teach you not to ignore me! Hahaha, you and Pine Tree are having a wide eyes contest! Here, let me try!” Bill said before widening his eyes and, with a small plop, popped both eyes out of his sockets staring at Tina.

She cried out, stumbling backwards and slipping on the wet floor. Dipper just barely managed to catch her, her head almost colliding with the counter.

“What the heck is happening in-!”

Mabel came around the corner to see Dipper bent over the counter, body stretched out and holding Tina under her arms, head against his chest, Bill bent over double from laughing, and everything was soaking wet.

“All three of you! Into the living room right now, now MOVE IT!” She yelled, pointing towards the employees only door.

Bill looked up to where Dipper was still holding Tina, as she gripped Dipper’s arms to keep her balance. Dipper locked his eyes with Bill’s for a moment, noticing the taken aback expression on his face, not aimed at Mabel or Tina- Bill was looking at him. Dipper sent him a confused look, before scowling at him.

Dipper refocused back onto Tina, helping her to her feet, and sliding back off the counter. Tina led the way into the room, with Dipper glaring at Bill, making sure to stay between them. Mabel meanwhile, was schmoozing the remaining customers into staying and hopefully buying things.

“Here,” Dipper said, shrugging off his flannel shirt and holding it out for her, “There’s a bathroom just down the hall and to the left, go get dried off alright?” Tina’s smile was strained, but she grabbed the shirt nonetheless and walked away to the bathroom.

Just as she turned the corner, the door to the shop slammed open.

“What the heck were you guys doing?!” Mabel asked, trying to control her voice. Dipper sent another scowl at Bill.

“Bill had a temper tantrum-

“That tramp was being rude-”

“Like you’re so much better!”

“I never ignored it-”

“Did you seriously just refer to her as-”

“Enough! From both of you!” Mabel said, silencing both of them, “Geez, the way you two went at it you’d think you were married!”

“Demon’s can’t get married.” Bill said flatly. Both twins sent him a scowl which he ignored.

“Bill. I understand you’re trying to get this whole human thing down and all-” Mabel tried.

“Wait,” Bill said giving her a scathing look accompanied with a dark chuckle, “You think I want to, what, _learn_ how to be a _human_?” He looked back and forth between them and laughed hysterically. “You should see the looks on your faces, you actually thought I wanted to be one of you _disgusting_ humans!”

It made Dipper physically recoil.

There was a pain in his chest- a hurt.

For some reason, some stupid reason, he not only started trusting Bill, but he believed they could have been...maybe not friends, but something.

It was hard to be anything to someone who not only thought you were disgusting, but held so much contempt for you as well.

“Bill.”

There was only one other time Dipper had heard Mabel use that sharp tone of voice. It was with his ex boyfriend after they broke up. She supposedly drugged him and duct taped him to the ceiling of his dorm room. It took the school two days to realize he was missing.

Bill stopped laughing, a grin still stretched on his face, “Yeah Shooting Star?”

Mabel lifted her chin, sizing Bill up.

“Sorry I- is everything alright?” Tina asked as she came around the corner looking much better than before. She was still wearing wet pants, but at least her hair was slightly dryer.

Mabel gave her a warm smile.

“Yes of course, Tina. I’m so sorry you and Bill had such a- miscommunication.” Mabel said tersely. Tina rolled her eyes, but let Mabel get away with it, to which both twins relaxed. “If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you?”

“Welllll…” Tina said, looking over to Dipper, “You could get this big lug to have dinner at my place.” She said nudging Dipper a bit. He smiled, exasperated with a mix of a sigh and a chuckle.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s fine Tina.” Dipper said with a small shake of his head. She beamed at him.

“I hope a little bit more than just ‘fine’!” She teased him, “I’ll get everything planned out and give you the details later, okay?” she said with a perk of her head. Dipper nodded in response.

“Alright. Tina go ahead and head home, get dry, and I’m so sorry again.” Mabel said. She sent a singular glare at Bill, before leading Tina out the door, presumably walking her out.

That left Dipper and Bill. Alone. With each other.

Dipper couldn’t even bring himself to look at Bill. He faced away from the demon, to where Mabel had been standing.

“Hey. Hey Pine Tree! That was funny, right? Dumping the water on her head? Her face? Classic! Hahahaha!”

Dipper ignored him, crossing his arms and staring straight ahead.

“Pine Tree? Hey, ground control to Pine Tree, you’re doing that thing where you space out again. I got it you landed on the moon, planet earth is blue, whatever, time to come back now Major.” Bill said, waving a hand in front of Dipper’s face. Dipper continued to scowl, ignoring him

“Pine Tree.” Poke to the face, “Pine Tree.” Poke to the side, “Pine Tree!” Poke in the rib. Hard.

“Pine-”

“You poke my brother again and I will banish that finger to the void.” Mabel said threateningly.

“Shooting Star! I assume you got that filthy thing off the premises?” Bill said with a smile. Dipper was grateful to have Bill’s attention diverted to something else.

“Hey Bill. Give me your hand a second.” Mabel said.

“Pffft, I don’t see why you want that but here--aaahhh!” Bill cried out as Mabel grabbed his hand by the pressure point, twisting it and bringing Bill to his knees immediately. “Hahaha! Wow that is exhilerating! Why didn’t you tell me about this before, Shooting Star, this is great!”

Mabel narrowed her eyes, “Oh sorry I’m doing it wrong. How about now?” She asked, digging in a bit more and twisting into his hand. He squawked falling limp, and grasping with his other hand where she was gripping him.

“Still so great?” Mabel asked with a perk of her head. He whimpered a bit and failed to growl a comeback. “I can put up with you dumping water on someone. I will tell you off and make sure you at least do it outside of work. But you _never_ ,” Mabel said puncturing each word with an additional twist and squeeze on the pressure point, “hurt. My. Brother’s. Feelings. _Again_.”

A shake ran through Dipper’s body, and he looked away from the scene that was going on. It didn’t bother him that Mabel was handling the situation. He still hadn’t gotten his confrontational side back yet, and she had been compensating for it. It didn’t bother him incredibly that she was being so violent with him.

It bothered him he was so transparent. It felt shameful that she knew his feelings were hurt, made the pain worse. He didn’t understand why, just that it did and bit his lip.

Mabel let Bill go soon after that, the demon flustered and scowling fiercely at the both of them. He readjusted his cloths, giving a disgusted look at the wrinkles and dirt on his dress clothing.

Mabel huffed and left to go back into the store. Bill was staring him down, Dipper looking at the wall, arms still crossed. He figured he better say something first before Bill said something stupid.

“I suggest you don’t do anything to Mabel in revenge. She meant it when she talked about banishing, she’s still prepared from your last stunt with Kappa Beta Phi.”

“You know I don’t find you disgusting, Pine Tree.” Bill said darkly and with just a hint of desperation. Dipper felt his jaw tense and he turned around heading for the stairs.

“Feel free to sleep on the couch, Bill.”

“Pine Tree.” A bit more desperate.

Dipper ignored him and continued up the stairs.

“Pine Tree.” A mix of anger and a lot of desperation. Dipper didn’t hear anything after that. He closed his door and shrugged off his clothing, changing into gym shorts and a tank top. He opened the window before stretching and going into his normal cycles.

It was late when he stopped exercising. Bill had knocked on the door several times and he eventually turned on music to drown him out. He started screaming at one point and Dipper was pretty sure he heard Mabel come up stairs and drag Bill away. Incurring her wrath also probably the reason why he didn’t break down the door.

Dipper took another shower after his exercise bringing down Bill’s pillow and blanket from upstairs and throwing them on the couch soon afterward. Wherever he was, he wasn’t around to which Dipper was grateful. He’d need to do something really special for Mabel.

Dipper went to bed early and without dinner, making sure to lock his bedroom door and ignore Bill’s side of the room. He just wanted to sleep and pretend today never happened.

When he finally fell asleep his nightmares came back, ten fold as if they had to make up for everyday Bill suppressed them.

The first thing he noticed was everything was yellow. Not solidly. But it seemed like a painting where the artist added just a hint of yellow to everything even the shadows, or like he was looking through yellow tinted glasses. It played like every other version yet, but whenever Dipper fell through the darkness, he woke up in the bed of his dorm room and the dream replayed. Every replay, the dream got less visceral- more smokey in his mind, harder to really exactly remember. The monster became less of a physical entity, more an emotion of fear.

He’d lost count of the mind bending replays when he woke up bleary eyed and confused.

That was weird. It was almost enough to want Bill back, just so he didn’t have to deal with these weird dreams. Ugh, no he was forgetting about the dream demon, he was thinking about something else.

His stomach growled and he sighed. What he got for exercising and skipping a meal. Dipper lazily swiped at the digital watch that was somewhere under his bed until his hand hit it, bringing it up to his face.

‘11:15pm’

What? No that couldn’t be right. That meant he’d only been asleep for...maybe two hours at the most? With a groan, he got out of bed, hunting for his cell phone. He had no idea where he left the stupid thing, probably downstairs with his luck. He let out a breath as he felt in his shorts pocket to find it.

‘11:21pm’

Dipper stared, mouth open at the time. His dream had felt like the night had gone by, maybe even a day or two with how many times the stupid thing repeated. With a rub at his face and a sigh, Dipper flopped back into his bed, gaze towards Bill side of the room.

Stupid demon. Stupid triangle demon that had to go and be stupid. He could have helped Dipper with this stupid dream, but no, he had to go and be stupid. Dipper closed his eyes sighing into his pillow and wishing his feelings still weren’t so hurt. At least then he and Bill could not sleep together. Cause there was no way he was falling back asleep anytime soon.

Dipper grabbed up his newest book, House of Leaves, turning on his lamp before delving into the written word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'll! Guh this chapter. I promised you I'd get them out sometime, and I meant it!
> 
> The whole respecting thing is something me and my little sister used to do a lot. We don't anymore, unfortunately. I think she's forgotten about it. Wanted to put it in there for nostalgia's sake.
> 
> Also, I'm going to be needing peeps input in the future! not sure when, but coming up there will be a chapter in which I'll need to hear from you, my awesome readers! I'll try to set up a polling thing, but we'll see! Thank you so much for reading I hope you enjoy, and thank you as always for commenting!


	10. Seeking Forgiveness

When Dipper went fOr the breakfast the next morning, having basically not slept, he didn’t fail to notice that Bill was gone. It loosened most of the coils in his stomach, and he relaxed.

“You’re up early.” Mabel said as she came into the kitchen for cereal. She was still in her pajamas as well.

“Mmm.” Dipper responded.

“Couldn’t sleep well?” She asked, rubbing at her face.

“Mmmmm.”

“Yeah, I had a hard time too. Bill was pouting all of last night. Though I’m surprised he didn’t make more noise or anything.”

“Hmmm.”

“Yeah, I was a bit worried too at first. I’d just assumed he- wait, where is he?”

“Hmm hmm?”

“No, I thought he had  camped out in front of your door like a puppy or something.” Mabel said, sitting down across from him.

Dipper sighed in response with an eyeroll.

“He seems to be upset that you were mad at him.”

“Mmmff.”

“It could have been just a lack of your attention, yeah, but I think- he was legitimately upset.” Mabel said between bites of her cereal. Dipper felt his stomach drop a bit, remembering the 'feelings' and 'emotions' discussion he and Bill had yesterday in the kitchen.

“I highly doubt that Mabel.” Dipper said, “ Remember; he’s a demon. He might enjoy our company for whatever reason, but no soul means no empathy.” Dipper said. Dipper took another bite looking over his twin.

Oh no. She was doing that lip biting thing. The I’m-doubting-you-Dipper thing.

“Just say it Mabel.” Dipper said with a sigh.

“Okay I know about the demon thing, and I know this is Bill and all, but what if- and just follow me for a second here- what if he did get a soul.” Mabel asked.

Dipper looked at her like a cow looks at an oncoming train.

“Mabel, that’s not even possible.”

“Oh come on, Dipper. We’ve seen crazier things than just a demon getting a soul.” Mabel said.

“True, but that’s not the point. Why would we _want_ to give Bill a soul? Don’t you think there’s a reason demon’s are soulless to begin with?” Dipper asked, drinking he last of his milk.

“But Dipper think about it- Bill hasn’t really been that bad...”

Dipper gave her a flat look. She ignored it.

“And it has been nice having another close friend around.”

“Mabel, Bill isn’t something to keep as a pet. Even I’ll admit, having him around has been…” A small ache in his chest and a flash of last afternoon, “pleasant. But that’s no reason to make this more permanent. Besides, Grunkle Stan is coming home in 9 days, what are we going to tell him?” Dipper took his bowl up to the sink, “For whatever reason, Bill’s gone. Honestly, it’s for the best if he stays like that.” Dipper knew he was saying that in part to convince himself.

Mabel scowled at him, “That was a harsh thing to say Dipper. And I also don’t believe it for a second. You’ve been enjoying his company just as much as I have.”

It was Dipper’s turn to grimace, “And just what is that suppose to mean?”

Mabel rolled her eyes, finishing up her own breakfast, “Don’t even try that. You’ve been loads better since Bill showed up. You smile occasionally, which with they way you were going there you’d have wrinkles by the time you're thirty. You actually participate in conversation instead of just spacing out most of the time like you normally do. Face it Dipper, this time around Bill has been really good for us!

Dipper clenched his fists, frustrated and trying to find a flaw in her argument. And that was the problem. He couldn’t. He could argue the ‘but the past!’only so much, and Mabel mentioned ‘this time around’ for a reason.

“Fine. Yes. He’s helped us both out this time around, but that doesn’t mean he can stay, Mabel. If you want to think up something to tell Grunkle Stan, by all means have at it. But considering your record with lying- and no, don’t even tell me you’d tell him the truth- that’s not going to go well.” Dipper said heading out of the kitchen, done with this line of conversation.

“Well fine, ye brother of little faith! I’ll show you! We can totally keep Bill around and Stan will totally let us!” He just shook his head, heading for his room, “And it’s sunday don’t you dare forget our adventure!”

Dipper grabbed a book, sulking in his room. So what if he wanted Bill to stay? Logistically, that couldn’t happen. Bill was a demon. Isn’t that a job or something? Dipper was sure Bill had duties of some sort to be doing, or at the very least, manipulative obligations. He did function from deals afterall.

And so yeah, maybe Dipper enjoyed his company a bit. The way he always lit up a room, even if it was sadistically, or the way he always included Dipper in...well, everything. He still thought humans were disgusting. He just needed to go.

At noon after reading away most of his saltiness, Dipper came downstairs, finding Mabel in the living room watching tv on the floor and knitting, Waddles at her side. She looked up to Dipper with a bright smile when he walked in.

“Hey! You got your grumpy gills good and out?”

Dipper rolled his eyes, “Yes, my grumpy gills are gone.”

“Good!” Mabel said, jumping up from her position on the ground. “Race you to the forest!”

“Wai-! Hey no fair!” Dipper shouted after her, laughing.

The two of them explored the forest as normal, but much less emphasis on finding crazy Gravity Falls weirdness and more hanging out together. The amount of respecting that went on would’ve made Aretha Franklin proud, though somehow, Mabel always ended up winning.

They ended up following a small stream that eventually led to the lake, occasionally skipping stones across its surface.

“So Dipper.” Mabel said as she got four skips.

“What’s up Mabel?”

Mabel did that pause thing where she was about to hit him with something big and was hesitating about it.

“Well...it’s about Bill.” Mabel said. Dipper sighed in response, but nodded. Of course it was about Bill.

“What about him?” Dipper asked.

“Just try for a moment to forget about all his stupidness. What are we going to do about him? Realistically Dipper.” Mabel added when she saw the sassy expression on Dipper’s face.

“Honestly? I’m not sure.” Dipper admitted, “I mean it’s not like we can realistically get rid of him. And I don’t think I could be enough of a jerk to get him to leave.”

“Knowing Bill he’d probably just enjoy the attention.” Mabel agreed.

“Yeah exactly. The only thing I can think of is to just...hope we taught him well and that he’s grown enough as a person to...I don’t know, do something. I can’t really see Bill apologizing.”

“Yeah, I mean- we _could_ always trap him in a binding circle and lock him away forever. Or until his body disintegrates.”

“True, but we don’t know the extent of Bill’s human-ness- he might be immune and would be pissed if we tried.” Dipper said. Dipper bit his lip. Thinking about Bill brought something up. Something that he should’ve probably talked with Mabel about already.

“Mabel, I actually have something to ask you.” Dipper said, nervously. He was nervous because he didn’t want to know what this could imply or entail.

“Sure broseph, what’s up?”

Dipper bit his lip. It was now or never.

“When- when I was talking to Bill in the kitchen he mentioned he was getting “feelings.” Like, emotions.” Mabel scoffed.

“Dipper that’s crazy he’s a demon demons don’t...get...emotions like that.” Mabel said, not believing herself even as she said it.

“Typically no they don’t. That’s why I wanted to mention.” Dipper said, looking away from his twin.

“I...I think we should wait on it for now. See how things develop. There’s so much uncertainty already, we don’t need more.”

Dipper smiled a bit, nodding his head.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure it’s nothing too big anyway.” He said.

Mabel sighed stopping in place and leaning on her brother. Both twins looked down into the stream, watching the water rush by, gurgling and bubbling as it went. It was already afternoon. Everything up until now had been so fun. To Dipper it felt like Bill had spoiled it, poisoned the memory of their fun day. It left a bad taste in his mouth, and he nudged Mabel off him.

“Come on we should get back.” Dipper said with a feigned smile. Mabel returned it with a sigh, a respected him hard enough for him to go careening into a tree.

“Hey!” He laughed as she raced away.

When they got out of the woods in front of the shack, they saw a figure standing on the porch.

Walking up to their home, they spotted Bill.

Bill was pacing in front of the door with several items in his arms. Mabel strode in front of Dipper as they approached, walking up the steps. She walked up to Bill before Dipper could even fully process what had happened. She gave the demon a large hug, before smacking him in the arm, just hard enough to get her point across.

“You jerk! Where in the world did you go, we were worried sick! Next time at least leave a note or something, or we’re not going to know if you’re okay!”

Bill seemed...flustered. He wasn’t blushing, although with how tan his skin tone was it’d be impossible to tell, but the demon was considering each word carefully.

“I needed to get something for Pine Tree.” Bill said as Dipper reached the edge of the steps. Mabel looked between the two of them for a minute, before Dipper nodded silently.

“Alright then, I’ll be inside if either of you need me.”

Dipper nodded to her again, still standing at the base of the steps.

Bill stood at the top of the stairs glaring at Dipper. Dipper in turn, crossed his arms frowning. Bill sighed and scowled harder. Dipper perked an eyebrow. Bill got irritated for some reason. He tried to do that creepy-smile thing. Dipper rolled his eyes, and ascended the stairs content on ignoring Bill.

“Stop!” Bill demanded.

Dipper turned to him, ready to rebuke Bill, but stopped.

Bill was struggling. It was evident in his posture and face, that he was entirely out of his element and had no idea what to do. With a sigh, and a rub at his face Dipper relaxed standing across from him.

“What’s up Bill?” Dipper asked as gently as he could.

Bill looked downward, then back at Dipper, then inside towards Mabel, then back at Dipper. He eventually shoved the things he was holding at Dipper. Dipper stuck his arms out reflexively, taking the things from him.

“Those are for you.”

Dipper looked at the mismatched items in his arms. A bag of all purpose flour. Um, okay odd but whatever. A...a collection of animal parts, claws and teeth mostly by the looks of it, bound together with metal wiring. And….an index card with ‘stop being mad at me’ written on it in black sharpie.

Dipper looked down in confusion, then up to Bill’s frustrated gaze, then back down to the items in his hand.

“Bill, I don’t understand.”

Bill growled in frustration stomping in place, and smacking the Pita Cola machine hard enough to dent it. It made Dipper flinch.

“I don’t either! I don’t understand you stupid humans! The lady said that that stuff would make you not be mad at me anymore, and here you are still mad at me!” Bill said, faced away from Dipper and looking evilly at the Cola machine.

“Lady-? Bill, where _were_ you? What did who say?” Dipper asked, looking at the objects again.

Bill huffed and pouted.

“I went into town to find out how to fix you. I saw Cherry Pie and she told me to get that stuff for you.” Bill grumbled.

Dipper gave him a confused look, “Cherry Pie? Who’s Cherry Pie?”

Dipper could feel Bill’s eyes roll, though he was looking at Dipper when he turned around.

“Older woman, always wears an apron, has a lazy eye.” Bill said impatiently.

Dipper blanched.

“Wait, seriously?! You talked to Lazy Susan, the woman you tried to have kill us?! And- ugh whatever, just- what exactly did she tell you?”

This was all so confusing. Bill actually went into town on his own without, as far as Dipper could tell, causing any havoc at all attempting to ‘fix’ Dipper being mad at him where he apparently had a civil conversation with Lazy Susan? Dipper would have called shenanigans to the no-havoc portion of all of this. And knowing Lazy Susan, who knows what she told Bill to do.

“She said I needed to get you that! To get you flour, jewelry and a card!”

Dipper reeled a bit when he said that looking back down at the collection of, apparently, apology gifts.

Flour. An animal...part necklace. And a card.

Bill had attempted to get him actual apology gifts.

God this was incredible parts weird and adorable.

“I should’ve just gotten you a hog brain like I wanted!” Bill said, pouting more. Dipper snapped out of it at that point.

“No! No no no this is- this is good. This is…” Dipper struggled for the right word. What was this exactly? It wasn’t exactly nice because the whole animal parts necklace but...it was very Bill. “...perfect. This is perfect.” Dipper said. Shock appeared on Bill’s face as Dipper put the things down on the ground. Dipper smiled at him, putting his arms out for a hug.

“What are you-? No no nonono this is terrible, stop this immediately no-!” Dipper hugged him powering through Bill attempted repelling. Dipper wrapped him tight amidst Bill’s noises of disgust.

“I love your gifts, thank you so much!” Dipper said with a large grin, highly enjoying Bill’s reaction.

Slowly, Bill started bending backward. Dipper, still holding onto Bill, bent back with him. Dipper laughed as Bill kept going. Dipper dug his feet into the wooden porch, still chuckling at Bill’s behavior as the demon kept going, stretching all the way back to the ground, Dipper bent over at an odd angle. When Bill starting lifting his midriff, Dipper gave up, letting go of him with another fit of laughter.

“Alright alright you win Bill I concede!” Dipper said, getting off the demon and standing up. Bill elegantly leaned forward, getting up off of the ground into a standing position.

“So you’re fixed now, right?” Bill asked frankly.

An idea popped into Dipper’s head. A very mean idea that he was very much going to take advantage of.

“Welllllll…” Dipper said, rubbing at his chin, a smirk coming to his face.

Bill grumbled again, “Ugh, what _more_ do you want?”

“There’s just one more thing you can do, and then all will be forgiven!” Dipper said, his smirk growing into a full out grin.

  


“Is this really necessary?” Bill asked for the ten thousandth time.

“Just do it Bill!” Mabel said into her microphone. Dipper chuckled, holding the mic boom a little closer to where Bill sighed.

He hadn’t seen the lyrics that Mabel had come up with yet. She said she wanted it to be a surprise. And like Bill said, the best kind of prize is a surprise, right?

Bill sighed again, before looking up to the sky.

“I’m Bill and I was wrong. I’m singing the Bill wrong song. I shouldn’t have insulted my friends, now I’m singing to make amends.”

“Do the pirouette!” Mabel shouted.

Dipper attempted to muffle his chuckles as Bill, with a sigh and an eye roll, executed the twirl perfectly as rehearsed.

“Alright we got the shot!” Mabel shouted, ending the accompanying music. Dipper reached over, turning off the camera. Bill collapsed on the ground. Dipper walked over to him, squatting next to the other man.

“Alright King Mellodrama, you are officially completely forgiven.” Dipper said smugly. Bill immediately popped his head up.

“That counts for all past transgressions as well! WOO!” he shouted, sticking his arms in the air.

“What? No! No it-”

“Too late, no take backsies!” He yelled hopping to his feet. He ran away laughing to catch up with Mabel who was headed inside with the camera. Dipper stood stunned for a moment, before shaking his head with an exasperated smile. Dipper was wrong about Bill. the demon was going to turn out alright, he could feel it.

Dipper walked to catch up with them his new Wolverine claw and Badger teeth necklace bouncing against his chest.

 

Things went back to normal after that. Bill kept Dipper’s nightmares away, they all ran the Mystery Shack together, and then fooled around afterward. Bill was officially both the best and worst player of attic miniature golf and greatly pitied Dipper for his extreme dislike of gore flicks.

Something was a little different between all of them. There became a natural lightheartedness when they were around one another. Dipper and Mabel finally fully trusted Bill- maybe not with the public, but they trusted him with themselves and with each other. The last shred of tension at having him around as a friend was gone, and they both felt solid enough in their relationship with him to call Bill their friend.

Which by the way, was the weirdest fucking experience Dipper thought he’d ever had.

It was a few days later and they were watching old reruns of Detective Duck for old times sake when Dipper’s cell phone went off. He didn’t recognize the number.

He got up to a choir of boo’s from Bill and his sister.

“I’ll be right back, we’ve seen this like how many times- hello?” Dipper said, answering the phone.

“Is Dipper Pines there?” a gruff voice asked.

“This is him.” Dipper said.

“Oh, Dipper. Sorry I didn’t recognize your voice- it’s Ranger McGucket.” Dipper lit up. He hadn’t heard from the Ranger since his wife’s passing.

“Oh Mr. McGucket, it’s good to hear from you!” Dipper said, “What can I do for you today?”

“Well I uh-” the Ranger started, obviously hesitant, “Something washed up on the beach of the lake recently and I was wondering if you could take a look at it for me.”

Dipper sobered quickly at that. He hadn't’ gotten a call about Gravity Falls weirdness for a long time, a least a couple of months. He glanced at the clock- 7:30pm. It wasn’t too dark out yet.

“Alright. Is now a good time for me to come out and take a look?” Dipper asked looking in on Mabel and Bill. He frowned when they were pointed in his direction making weird faces at him.

‘ _Stop it_!’ he mouthed at them with a swatting motion. They immediately started mimicking him.

“I think that would be for the best.” Ranger McGucket suggested. Dipper frowned at the two others, shaking his head at them. He turned around, ignoring their antics and laughing.

“Alright, I’ll be out there immediately. We’ll meet at the outpost?”

“Alright Pines, see you soon.”

“Yeah, bye.” Dipper said, hanging up his phone. He sighed, heading over to where the other two had stopped mimicking him and waiting patiently to hear what was going on.

“So what’s up bro bro?” Mabel asked

“Well that was Ranger McGucket of all people. He said he needs us to come down to the lake. Something weird washed up on shore apparently.”

“Ooooh, like a Giant Eyeball?” Bill asked excitedly.

“Not that I’m aware of…? McGucket said he had no idea what exactly it was which is why he was calling me. I’m going to head over if either of you want-”

“WOO! Adventure!”

“WOO! Uncertainty of murder!” Mabel and Bill simultaneously shouted, both jumping upward.

-tocomewithme.” Dipper finished with a flat look. Well at least they were all going, that’s something right?

They hurried to get ready, having been lying around in their pajamas, before heading out of the house. Dipper was going to drive, especially seeing as Mabel already had Bill pre-occupied with their new favorite game, “Insert Dipper into a situation and discuss it ad nauseum.” The current situation was if Dipper had to cook belgian waffles for a group of 250 people and he was missing a leg. He didn’t understand the point of him missing a leg.

“Sorry, wrong universe.” Was all he got in response.

Dipper took a deep breath as they got out of the car at the lake.

Dipper loved the smell of Gravity Falls. There was a scent of evergreens and some sweet spice he couldn’t put his finger on. Maybe cinnamon? Freshwater scent added into the mix was incredibly refreshing and Dipper couldn’t help a small smile popping onto his face.

He spotted Ranger McGucket standing at the edge of the shore line bent over something when they pulled up. The ranger waved them over as they got out, Bill and Mabel still giggling to each other.

“What’s wrong Ranger?” Dipper asked looking over to the lump McGucket was standing over.

“I’m not sure, Pines. Take a look.” McGucket moved out of the way and Dipper cringed at the sight.

There was a hunk of...he wasn’t sure. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, gore coming from huge rips in its fleshy body. Odd metal tubing sprouted from both inside and out of the hunk of flesh, twisting and pivoting around. It was grey-blue in color with a royal purple blood that was seeping out and mixing with the water of the lake.

Dipper got a little closer to it examining the lower torso and legs. It was or...had been male. There was a definite lack of breasts, though he couldn’t be too sure. Whatever was between the thing’s legs had been mangled to pieces. He heard a soft thunk and looked over to see Bill poking it in the head with a stick.

“Bill, stop.” Dipper said with a frown, looking back to the thing’s split belly.

“So you ever seen anything like this?” McGucket asked. Dipper shook his head, brow furrowing in thought. No he hadn’t, nothing even close. It was some...weird cyborg-ish thing, he wasn’t even sure.

“Nothing even close.” Dipper admitted. He wasn’t even sure what question to ask; what was this thing, what mangled it so completely? Was it created or the merging of two already live entities?

Dipper turned around, heading to quickly get gloves from his car. No way he as picking that thing up without something. As he turned back, latex gloves on hand, his startled as the thing had risen up.

“Hur dur, I’m Dipper the greatest paranormal expert in Gravity Falls! I’m a huge nerd!” Mabel mocked to a now laughing Bill. Dipper felt his hackles rise and he rushed over to them.

“Mabel!” He said, taking the corpse out of her hands, “We have no idea what this is or where it came from! For all you know, you might have just contracted an alien virus and then we’re going to have to go to Antarctica to save you from a government conspiracy with extra terrestrials!”

“The X-files? You are such a nerd!” Bill said with glee. He and Mabel laughed again.

A loud a watery breath from the corpse had everyone scream and scuttle away from where Dipper dropped it. A particularly loud and feminine scream had all three of them looking at McGucket.

After taking a moment to calm himself, he cleared his throat, looking away.

The creature had since stopped breathing, and Dipper motioned them to be quiet. He crept up to the creature keeping focused on its body, trying to see if there was even a twitch of life from the thing. Another ‘thump thump’ had Dipper looking up. Bill was poking its arm with a stick this time.

Dipper caught himself about to scream, making an odd screeching hum in the back of his throat instead. Bill stopped, looking at him with confusion.

Dipper swung his arms to the side, motioning for Bill to stop and move already!

Bill pointed to the corpse.

Dipper swung his arms with more gusto.

Bill pointed to the stick.

Dipper strangled him- no. Dipper _emphatically_ threw his arms in the direction he wanted Bill to move, the high pitched squeal-hum mixing with a bit of a growl in the back of his throat.

Bill nodded with a smile, throwing the stick backwards and proceeding to poke the creature with his foot instead.

Dipper screamed a growl in frustration, hands balled into fists.

“FUCKING BACK UP!” He finally shouted at him stomping his foot in place.

Bill stared for a moment then with riotous laughter, backed up a few steps.

“Oh dang, a _complete_ misunderstanding on my part! I thought you wanted me to get more pokey with the creature!”

Dipper was going to kill him.

Dipper was going to resurrect that corpse cyborg thing and then kill him with it.

Then he was going to resurrect Bill and kill him again.

He relaxed his body, taking in a deep breath and holding it for a few moments, before casually walking up to the creature. He flipped it on its front, examining the gashes more closely. They looked like rips from teeth but...it was odd.

The sizes were incredibly inconsistent, some gashes wide as his palm, some needle thin. All were deep, at least two inches if not more. Teeth that narrow would break easily. They’d be made like a sharks, multiple sets so when they inevitably break off, another can grow in its place. But that would be the opposite of the the wide gashes, a predator with thick teeth made for chomping into prey.

The creature itself, judging by the patterns, was most likely a cyborg after all- a human that was mechanically enhanced. It- it was definitely enhanced with bio chemicals as well, at least at some point judging by its skin and blood colors. It also had to have massive surgery. Its face was barely there, even under the gore. He took out his phone, taking several pictures of the body from multiple angles. They’d unfortunately, have to get rid of it.

“Can-” McGucket cleared his throat, “can you tell anything about it?” he asked Dipper.

“Well it was human at one point.” He said standing up, “For now, we should probably burn it. We don’t know if this thing is capable of regrowing itself, and I don’t want to take that chance.” Dipper said, taking off his rubber gloves.

“I’ll let it dry out then, make sure it’s gone by tomorrow afternoon.” McGucket said. Dipper nodded to him looking for Bill and Mabel. They were looking at the water, pointing to fish swimming in the shadows. Dipper sighed taking off his hat a moment to run a hand through his hair. They had already gotten bored.

“Come on lame and lamer, time to head out.” Dipper called to them, heading for the car.

“Does that mean you’re the lamest, Pine Tree?” Bill teased when they’d caught up with him. Mabel laughed and Dipper felt himself smile at the wittiness despite himself.

“Haha, you’re hilarious.”

“I do try just my hardest.”

The ride back to the Mystery Shack was quiet. He had a lot to think about and everyone had already been feeling lazy that day. When they pulled in, everyone tensed as a hidden conspiracy flashed between them. As Dipper turned off the car and undid his seatbelt, he opened his door and locked the car at the same time.

“Hey!” he heard Mabel shout as he raced inside. He grinned.

let the battle for the loveseat commence!

He jumped over the steps, not bothering to close the door and hurried to the couch. Just as he sat down he felt another body crush into his, pushing him to the side.

“Hey!”

“Looks like we got here at the same time, Pine Tree!” Bill said with a grin.

Dipper sputtered a bit when Mabel came in with a pout. Waddles rushed in coming to join in the excitement.

“Hey, why don’t I get any room?”

Dipper scowled at her.

“Seriously? You had it to yourself the entire day.” Dipper said, his momentary confusion and potential anger towards Bill lost at the prospect of teasing Mabel. Dipper put on a lazy smirk leaning back into the chair. His splayed out both his arms, one hanging off the arm of the couch the other landing around Bill. He felt the demon tense. “Now it’s our turn to relaaaaaaaaax.”

Mabel clucked her tongue before falling on them.

“But that’s not faaaaaaaaaaair.” She crooned back to him.

Dipper didn’t fail to notice Bill was still tense. He thought about taking away the arm that still gently rested against the demon's back.

“It is totally fair! Now to the ground with ye!” He said, pushing her out of his lap with his spare hand. He laughed expecting Bill to join along.

He didn’t.

Dipper shot him a concerned look- Bill was gazing at him intently. Dipper’s brow furrowed, and he cocked his head a bit at Bill. Bill leaned into the cusp of Dipper’s arm and closed his eyes, turning his head forward. He felt the heat of Bill’s back against his arm, muscle shifting and tensing against his own.

Dipper felt heat rush to his face, realizing how intimate their space had become. He mimicked Bill, turning his head forward, but not moving his arm.

“Yeesh, you didn’t have to toss me off! Jerk!” She said, playfully hitting Dipper in the leg. Dipper didn’t respond. His felt lightheaded, pressure from blood rushing to his face. Bill squirmed against his arm, getting comfortable where he was lying against Dipper. Dipper swallowed thickly. His hand came up to Bill’s side hesitantly and he swallowed again. Bill leaned into that touch as well.

They settled in like that, Mabel turning the television to her new favorite show, Adolescent Wolf. It was utter garbage and the werewolf community begrudgingly accepted it (‘we’re not sparkling, so that’s something’) and Mabel was immediately engrossed with the show, ignoring the other two people sitting with her.

Dipper was particularly surprised she didn’t say anything after his lack of objection. But hot, shirtless 20 year olds are pretty distracting.

Dipper didn’t say a word as the episode dragged on, and it took Bill half an hour to finally snap back to his normal mouthy self.

“That’s not how werewolves work.”

“Bill, shush! I know that, just be quiet.”

One of the werewolves transforms.

“That isn’t how werewolves work either.”

“Bill, I know! Be quiet I don’t want to miss this!”

Silence.

One of the werewolves becomes sick from wolfsbane.

“Still not how werewolves-”

“BILL! I KNOW this show isn’t accurate but I like the story and it’s an interesting interpretation now shut UP!” Mabel said turning back to the television.

Two of the characters were gearing up for a kiss, the battle over. They leaned into one another. Mabel hugged tightly around Waddles, leaning towards the tv.

The door to the living room banged open. “SURPRISE!”

All of them screamed and jumped, Mabel immediately on her feet in attack mode (where the hell did she get her Grappling Rifle so fast?!),  Bill had jumped over the couch grabbed the skull and was preparing to launch it at the intruder, and Dipper had shot between them, an arm out in front of both of them, shielding them from possible harm.

Everyone paused when they heard the telltale laugh of their Grunkle Stan.

“Hey kids I’m back early!”

The twins’ adrenaline spiked further and they shot each other a horrified glance.

Home.

Early.

“Nice to finally see you again, Mackerel!” Bill said, putting down the skull.

The twins gulped.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super long chapter! I officially have the end goal in sight too! UGH I can't wait, it's going to be awesome! Things from here on out are going to get a little more tense, and everything is going to take place during the next couple of days. As for the poll I mentioned, I'll have it up with Chapter 14! 
> 
> I hope ya'll enjoy, thank you as always for commenting!


	11. Early

“...Who's the freak with the snazzy clothes and freckles, and what is he doing in my hoUse?” Grunkle Stan asked, facing the twins and pointing at Bill.

Dipper’s heart sunk. Neither of them were talking, looks of horror on their face. Stan narrowed his eyes at them taking a step inside the living room.

“Who is that man?” Grunkle Stan asked again, menace in his voice. Dipper quickly shot Bill a look. Bill was looking at him with a large, but faltering grin, confusion taking over his face.

“Aww, Mackerel, you don’t recognize me?” Bill asked, gaining Stan’s attention. Their Grunkle ran a gaze up and down Bill’s body.

“No. I don’t.” Dipper bristled. Stan was using his threatening tone of voice, and had already moved into a defensive stance. Bill was completely unphased and pouting at Stan’s lack of remembrance.

Mabel reacted as well taking a step forward.

“Grunkle Stan we- it’s a- a little complicated.” Mabel said sharing a look with her twin.

“Mabel, what are you doing?!” Dipper ground out under his breath.

‘ _Trust me_ ’ she mouthed back, before facing towards Stan.

“This is not going to be good for my health.” Stan said rolling his eyes. Both twins flinched. He walked past them, heading for the kitchen. “You have five minutes to explain before I kick all three of you out onto the street.”

Mabel immediately darted after Stan and Dipper made to follow but paused looking towards Bill. The man was looking towards where Stan left, pout still on his lips.

“Bill- please just- give us a few minutes alone, okay?” Dipper asked. Bill’s pout deepened.

“But Pine Treeeee,” he whined, “what am I suppose to do until then?”

Dipper felt he was going to crumble from the stress.

“I don’t know Bill, please just- just _don’t_ right now. Please.”

Bill humphed and crossed his arms.

“Geez you don’t have to say please that many times. Go do whatever.” He said falling onto the loveseat. Dipper nodded once hurrying into the kitchen.

Everything was awkward.

Mabel was standing awkwardly with her arms crossed, Stan was sitting awkwardly waiting for someone to start talking. And Dipper was staring at them awkwardly quiet.

“So are one of you two going to start talking?” Stan said shortly. Both of them tensed.

“Well…” Mabel started. Dipper tried to come up with anything to say. Anything _but_ the truth.

“This is about how I magically got better, isn’t it?”

“Wait, how did you know about that?” Dipper asked. Grunkle Stan rolled his eyes.

“Please, living with you two kids? You two attract more supernatural attention than any six people in Gravity Falls combined. What else could it be when you are involved?” they had enough modesty to look sheepish, guilt stabbing right in the chest. “But come on now, what was it and how is that creep involved? Was it a chemical? A disease? Pledge to an elder god? Robotics? Please don’t tell me I have a robotic heart now.”

“No-it’s- it’s none of that.” Mabel admitted. Silence followed her words and Grunkle Stan glared at them expectantly.

The twins shared a look and Dipper could see it in her eyes.

Mabel was going to tell him the truth. She broke eye contact with his opening her mouth and turning to Stan.

“Mabel, no!” Dipper cried out taking a step forward.

Grunkle Stan looked at him oddly, as more silence rang out in the kitchen. Dipper wanted to throw up. They were going to be in such deep shit. He bit his lip, rubbing his arm.

“Dipper, look.” Grunkle Stan said after the weight of the moment carried for too long, “whatever it was you kids did I’m not mad that you did it- I’m mad that you weren't honest about it and that you didn’t ask my permission. So just tell me the truth and let’s get this over with. I’m mean as long as you didn’t infect me with vampirism or something…”

“Wouldn’t you have turned already?” Mabel asked out of reflex. Stan waved a hand is dismissal.

“I wouldn’t put it past either of you to find or make some mutated form of it. Now tell me what you kids did.”

Dipper sighed, looking at Mabel again. He nodded and she nodded back, silent understanding; Dipper was the one who made the deal, he would explain the situation.

“I mean it can’t be as bad as vampirism really, maybe cybernetics-”

“We made a deal with Bill.”

There were only two times in his life that Dipper had seen his Grunkle at a loss for words. One was at the return of his brother, the other was when Dipper said he was dating another guy.

This was not like either of those times.

Stan’s face transfered from confusion to disbelief to anger and, for a second, to fear. He shot up from his seat.

“YOU WHAT?!” he roared at them. Both of the children flinched heavily. Stan stood arms out, furious confusion on his face.

“HOW COULD-? WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! And here I was thinking to myself what it could _possibly_ be! I thought at worst, at _worst_ you went to a sphinx, but no you two sailed WAY OVER THAT EXPECTATION!”

He yelled obscenities in aggravation turning around from the both of them. He swiped at his face, sighing in frustration. Dipper and Mabel both, stayed where they were standing entirely recoiled on themselves.

“So you mean to tell me,” Grunkle Stan started, voice threateningly calm, “That that _thing_ in my living room is Bill Cipher?”

“...yes.” Mabel said quietly. Their Grunkle’s entire body rattled, taking in deep breaths.

The near silence extended out, tension filling the space in the room, like drowning waters. Dipper was controlling his breathing making absolutely certain Stan couldn’t hear a single noise he might make. Mabel was fidgeting in place, failing to attempt the same.

Stan turned around glaring at the both of them.

“This is what’s going to happen,” he said, hints of danger not well hidden in his voice, “I don’t care who made the deal. I don’t care why they made the deal. You two knuckleheads are going to keep him from doing _anything_. He is not to go outside, or- please don’t tell me you took him out in public.” He shook his head and let out a long breath at their guilty faces. “Just- please. For the love of everything that is holy do not do anything else this stupid.” Stan said leaving the kitchen. They quickly followed after him.

Bill was lounging on the loveseat.

Grunkle Stan walked up to him and grabbed him around the collar, hoisting him off the recliner. Bill tsked but made no other movement. He didn’t look even mildly surprised.

“If you even so much as _touch_ my nephew or niece I’ll make sure you don’t speak another syllable in your life.” Stan said before tossing Bill back on the couch.

He immediately turned, heading for the door, the twins still chasing after him. Stan hoisted up his suitcase, heading out the gift shop door.

“Gr-grunkle Stan, where are you going?” Mabel asked hesitantly.

“I’m getting my brother.” Stan said, before slamming the gift shop door.

Oh god…

If they thought Grunkle Stan was bad…

Grandpa Stanley was going to literally kill them.

He would banish them to the seven hells, then banish Bill there, then bring them back so he could banish them all over again.

Ohh, fuck him sideways.

Dipper looked at Mabel, her expression of utter horror mimicking his own.

And Dipper didn’t say this out of misplaced feelings or anything. Grandpa Stanley _literally_ tried to banish them to the seven hells for missing curfew once when they were fifteen.

His...trip through that portal left his mind screwy for a while. And Grunkle Stan admitted his brother’s mind was barely there to begin with. Stan put a stop to the attempted banishing swiftly.

Dipper wasn’t so sure he would this time.

They turned as they heard the wood floors creaking, Bill walking into the room.

“Sheesh, what’s his problem?” Bill asked, rubbing at his collar. Dipper sighed taking off his hat and running a hand through his hair.

“Bill, you betrayed him and Grandpa and locked Stanley in another dimension for thirty years.” Dipper said, frustrated. It frustrated him to hear those words, to know yet another way Bill had hurt them.

And after it all he still freaking cared about Bill.

It drove him nuts.

“Pffft yeah, but that was 30 years ago. Besides you guys fixed that problem!” Bill said with a nod and a smirk.

“Bill, stop.” Dipper said shortly. His harsh tone caused Bill’s smirk to fall immediately. “You cannot invalidate Stan’s feelings- _anyone’s_ feelings by down-putting your own immoral behavior. What you did was wrong.”

Bill rolled his eyes, before he nodded.

“Sheesh kid. I was just being facetious. But you’re...frustrated yes, got that, you can stop glaring now, I’ll tone it down.”

Dipper sighed crossing his arms and looking away from Bill. His reaction was better than Dipper expected. Honestly, he was certain Bill would be more argumentative or- say something flippant...but instead Bill let it go, and admitted he was wrong...well, got as close to admitting he was wrong by not outright denying his guilt so...progress?

Either way Dipper felt a good portion of his frustration and conflicted feelings dissipate.

“...Thanks.”

They stood in silence. Both twins had their arms crossed, and Bill eyed them looking from one to the other. Dipper chewed against his inner cheek, trying to think of a way out of this situation. They could move to Canada. He had always wanted to see what that whole Canada Day thing was about.

The fact that migration to Canada was his first legitimate idea spoke volumes to him.

“Sooo...what do we do now, Broseph?” Mabel asked. He was typically the one with the plan.

“I...I don’t know. Bill, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to break our uh- deal?” Dipper asked, looking towards the demon.

Bill shook his head with a bright smile. “Not unless you want me to have your soul!” Dipper sighed but honestly hadn’t expected any different.

“I guess we just...tell them the truth.” Dipper said, defeated, “Whenever Grunkle Stan comes back with Stanley.”

Mabel gave him a  playful slap on the arm.

“You say that as if telling the truth is a bad thing.” Mabel tried to lighten the mood. Dipper attempted to give her a smile, but it faltered and failed and her’s died with it.

After that, he and Mabel split off, deciding to just go to bed and sleep it off. They had made a silent agreement to forget it for now and leave it till tomorrow. Bill shadowed Dipper, a look of confusion on his face the entire time. They got ready for bed, Bill still unusually silent, much to Dipper’s exasperation.

“Bill you know you can talk right?”

“Pfft, of course I know that! Like you could stop me!” Dipper thought of a few ways he _could_ stop Bill, but let the comment pass. “I’m...confused.”

Dipper climbed into bed, before very pointedly not turning to face the mostly naked Bill. Just when Dipper had started getting almost used to mostly-naked Bill, the demon had decided to start wearing the thigh highs he got from Mabel. Now he was back to ignoring the demon’s lack of modesty.

“Alright, what are you confused about exactly?” Dipper asked.

“Why didn’t you stand up for yourself? The Pine Tree I know wouldn’t be so passive.” Bill said.

Dipper stiffened. The Pine Tree Bill knew...He’d hadn’t been around Bill after he and Mabel started college. This- change would be new to him. And Dipper really didn’t want to think about this right now.

He let out a long sigh closing and rubbing between his eyes.

“It’s...a long story Bill. We’ll talk about it later, okay? I just want to get some sleep.” Dipper said. He didn’t have to see Bill to know the demon was pouting.

“How about a deal?” Bill said, and Dipper could hear the grin in his voice. He groaned, the joke getting a self-loathing chuckle out of Dipper.

“Too soon, Bill. Way too soon.” Dipper said.

“That’s the _point_ , Pine Tree.” Bill said and Dipper rolled his eyes. The demon walked over to him, and Dipper sighed as he felt a hand run through his hair. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but that was one of Dipper’s favorite parts about Bill. Bill’s fingers carding through his hair in the perfect way, just the right amount of nails and pressure. The bliss of sleep brushed over him, and he let out a large breath.

As his consciousness swept away, he sighed and leaned into the fingers that pleasantly weaved over his scalp.

 

~~~~~

 

The next few days went by in auto pilot. Although both Dipper and Mabel had agreed to talk things over, they avoided each other in a silent agreement to procrastinate the issue for as long as possible. They spent minimal time together, both keeping themselves busy on their own. Which meant they weren’t spending time with Bill.

After three days, Bill was completely done with both of them and had started his misbehaving streak.

After they caught him making a dart trap out of two finger traps and half a flashlight Dipper decided they should probably get things hashed out.

“Mabel this is stupid.” Dipper said, at their lunch break, finding Mabel hiding in her room. “We need to just talk about this, come up with some semblance of a plan and get things back to normal.”

She nodded solemnly, “You’re right, it’s just...I don’t want Bill to leave.” She admitted with a sad smile.

Dipper returned her smile weakly, “And he’s not going to. At least not right away. Besides, I...I don’t want Bill to leave either.”

“Awww, Pine Tree! I thought you’d never say it!”

Dipper groaned as he felt Bill’s arms wrap around his neck, and the demon put almost all his weight on the human, almost hanging from Dipper.

“Alright already, Bill.” Dipper grumbled, crossing his arms. Bill flopped to the floor on his back, pushing himself to Mabel’s side with his feet.

“So what are we going to do, exactly?” Mabel asked.

They all thought for a moment, trying to come up with something that might actually work. Mabel looked at Bill, then Dipper her eyes widening. She looked between them over and over before Dipper finally spoke up.

“Mabel, what are you-”

“I could make a deal with Bill!” She exclaimed suddenly. Bill brightened immediately at hearing her suggestion.

“Yeah!”

“NO.” Dipper said. Bill’s face immediately fell, “Seriously Mabel? That’s your plan? That’s a terrible idea!”

Mabel gave him a pointed look, “Like you’re one to talk. Besides Dip Dop, we both want Bill to stay here for now, right? I mean just imagine what he could get up to if  we weren’t around to watch him!”

Dipper saw where her argument was going- keep your friends close, and your enemies closer and all that. It was an argument that Stanley would get behind, knowing the old crazy kook.

“Okay, but why exactly do you need to make a deal with him?” Dipper asked. Mabel smiled widely at him.

“Insurance!” Mabel exclaimed.

Sure, why not? They already destroyed Grunkle Stan’s trust, they had nothing to lose now.

Except it was a _terrible_ idea.

“Mabel,..in the end, it’s your decision. And nothing against you, Bill, but I don’t think this is the way we should go about this.” Dipper admitted. Bill tried to grin reassuringly as he hopped up to Dipper It didn’t help much.

“Come on now, Pine Tree! What’s a little manipulative self-hostaging between family?”

Mabel bit her lip in guilt and indecision. She squared her shoulders after a moment of thought.

“It’s still out best option, Broski.” Mabel said. Her mind was made up, and Dipper didn’t pester her about it anymore.

“Alright Shooting Star! Deal time!” Bill said, hopping in front of her. “What do you want to ask for?”

Mabel took her time figuring out how to word her end of the deal, narrowing her eyes, a finger coming to her lip.

“Okay, I want a deal where you live with us, and any attempt to break our deal, except for the two of us mutually breaking the deal, ends with you getting my soul. This only applies to people who know about the deal, and actively attempt to break it, but not out of spite towards me.”

“Sounds good to me-

“Wait, I’m not finished!” Mabel said with a frown, “If you break the deal, I get one free favor, and you don’t get my soul, and our deal is immediately off. And that counts if you even try to manipulate someone into breaking our deal. Got it?” She sent him a small glare.

Dipper had to admit that training with Grunkle Stan really paid off. Mabel was thorough.

Bill rolled his eyes, “Yeah yeah, Shooting Star. You done? Okay, for my end.” He said with a smirk, “You owe me a favor of my choosing.” Bill said with a smirk.

“Only if the favor is non-violent.” Mabel said. Bill’s smirk fell. He tapped his face narrowing his eyes in thought. He finally nodded.

“Non-lethal.” Bill countered.

Mabel thought about this.

“Fair enough.”

Bill grinned.

“Alright Shooting Star, you got yourself a deal.” Bill said sticking out his hand.

Dipper finally spoke up.

“Mabel, if you do this there’s no going back.” Dipper warned one last time. Mabel gave him a genuine smile.

“Yeah, I know Bro-bro. But we’re in this together, right?” Mabel asked.

Dipper smiled back nodding his head.

As Mabel took Bill’s hand, a blue flame erupted from where they joined, rippling down their bodies. Bill continued to smile, as Mabel shiver ripped down her body.

They broke off contact after another second Mabel stepping away. She looked down at herself, confused, before tapping around her body. She hummed in thought, looking behind her, at her feet, her arms. Her boob grab snapped Dipper to attention.

“Mabel, what are you doing?” Dipper asked.

“I don’t know I just thought- maybe I’d feel different afterward or something?” Mabel asked, looking toward her brother. Dipper rolled his eyes giving her an exasperated smile.

“Nope! Nothing different except that you promised your soul to a demon!” Bill said with his usual cheer.

Mabel pouted at him.

“Hey that’s only if things go very very wrong. And I dunno I just thought I’d feel...something spectacular, like crazy eye laser vision...or crazy _boob_ vision!” She said, jiggling her breasts.

“Mabel eww, no one wants to see that!” Dipper said, covering his eyes.

“What? Come on, you gotta admit, Dip-dop, they are pretty fantastic!” Mabel teased.

“I would really rather not imagine or think about your boobs in any capacity. Now can we get back to the whole Stanley’s going to kill us phase of things?”

“Listen, you’re putting way too much thought into this Pine Tree.” Bill said, walking over to the other. Mabel let go of her boobs, while Dipper looked out from behind his hands, both of them intrigued by what the man was saying, “All we have to do is lie low for a bit, not do anything too crazy. Then Fingers and Mackerel will get home and won’t be able to complain, and!’ He added, a larger than normal grin overtaking his face, “Shooting Star and I solidified everything with this deal.”

“We’ll be fine Dipper.” Mabel agreed.

“Pffft, better than fine! We’ll be unstoppable!”

Dipper felt like he should be more weary, that Bill was planning something. But his doubts couldn’t overwhelm the trust he felt for the man, and he nodded at the two others.

“Alright. But we should still be cautious.” Dipper said.

“Well duh, it’s not like we’re going to summon some evil chaos from beyond the void!” Mabel said, slapping her brother lightly, “Cheer up bro-bro we’ll be fine!”

Dipper gave them both a smile. He trusted them. They were going to be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of you are beautiful, thank you for continuing to read this and commenting and just being here! Things are going to get a bit...squished maybe? The final few chapters are going to cover the next couple of days, no time gaps or anything so! Hope ya'll enjoy!


	12. But Something is Happening

They were careFul the next couple days. They decided that, just to be extra cautious, if either twin needed to go into town, the other would stay with Bill. They’d done a very good job alternating, making sure to keep going into town for chores separate from going into town for fun times. They had no idea what kind of crazy camera system the Shack might have in it, and between two tech savvy paranoid relatives the odds were good there was something. Besides, they wanted to respect Grunkle Stan’s wish in keeping Bill away from town and to keep an eye on the man.

All in all though, Dipper was...happy. It was weird to admit, but Dipper was legitimately feeling incredibly cheerful. There was this nagging in the back of his mind- ‘what happens when Stan squared gets back?’ It was something that would’ve kept him up at night originally, but thanks to Bill that really wasn’t a problem.

Still, he couldn’t help the bounce in his walk as he left the grocery store, arms full of food. It was mostly unneeded, but Mabel had wanted a few things, then Bill had chimed in, and then Dipper had ended up getting both of them small gifts. He got Mabel a thing of edible sprinkles and he got Bill a thing of Toblerones.

He was becoming a sap.

Somehow, he didn’t mind too much.

Lost in thought, Dipper almost ran into someone, catching himself at the last moment.

“Oh sorry-”

“Sorry- oh, hey Derper!”

Dipper sighed.

It was Tina.

“H-hey, Tina. Sorry about almost bumping into you.”

“Don’t worry, about it, I know you were just so happy to see me, distracted by my beauty.” She said, framing her face with her hands. Dipper cringed minutely, giving out an awkward fluttery laugh. The secondhand embarrassment…

“But seriously, you’re smiling awful wide. What’s got you in such a good mood?” She asked.

“Wait, I do?” Dipper asked, surprised. He normally had a pretty neutral expression

“Yeah, you were smiling up a storm! Come on, tell me about it!”

Dipper opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. He- actually wasn’t quite sure why. Like, Bill was certainly part of it, but the demon wasn’t the whole reason...was he?

“I- you know, I don’t really know.” Dipper said and was honestly, content with that.

Tina wasn’t, and she gave him a pout.

“You know, if you don’t want to tell me that’s fine too. But besides, now that I found you I’ve been meaning to ask,” Tina got out before Dipper had a chance to argue, “I was wondering if you wanted to come over tomorrow night for dinner!”

Dipper gulped. He- he had promised her. Fuck him, he did not want to. He was cursed to never be happy. But he promised. And Dipper Pines kept his promises.

Seeing his hesitation, Tina continued, “They’ll be a couple of people there-  it’s a get together, we have them every Monday. Me and three others- and we’ve been wanting to bring someone else into our group. You wouldn’t have to do it every monday, unless you wanted to. Just-” Tina put a hand on his arm, getting in a bit too close for his liking, “Come just the once, test things out?”

Well, he was going to go anyway, but what she said did make things sound a bit more palatable.

“Yeah. Yes- I’ll be there. Err- what time and where?” Dipper asked.

“Yay! Alright,” Tina said, getting out a pen and receipt to write the address on, “We get together at eight, so don’t be late okay? Trust me, you’ll want to come back every monday. We have so much fun!” Dipper just politely smiled as she handed him the address, all but shuddering on the inside. “Okay, I need to get going but I’ll see you tomorrow! Oh! And nice necklace!” She said, shouldering her purse and heading off.

“Yeah, see you then!” Dipper called after her, none too ecstatically.

He sighed. Welp. That happened. At least he wouldn’t feel the need to placate her after this, that would be nice. Rolling his shoulders, Dipper walked to the car, hopping in and starting for home.

He’d have to let Mabel know. And make sure Bill _did not_ find out. The demon would be pissed- would probably follow him there and ruin everything.

On the ride home, Dipper tried to think of a way to tell Mabel about the get together tomorrow without Bill interfering. He stuck to the twins like glue these days, so it’d be difficult to get Mabel alone. He could write her a note, slip it to her when he wasn’t looking. That’d probably work.

When he got home, taking the groceries in hand and into the Shack, Mabel was waiting for him. She quickly grabbed some of the bags, helping him unload and put away the food.

“Soooooo,” She started with that inflection she made when she was going to ask him for a favor, “Grenda’s man just got into town today. And her, Candy, and I were thinking about hanging out together tonight.”

“So you want me to watch Bill.” Dipper said.

“Please please please please please!” She begged clasping her hands together, “I know it’s my turn today but I really want to see the girls. And Marius is bringing a few of his rich friends to meet Grenda and that means hot, single, rich boys!”

Dipper rolled his eyes a smile coming to his lips. An idea played into his head- maybe he didn’t have to write a note after all.

“Alright, you can if you do me a favor.” Dipper said. He looked out the door- no sign of Bill.

“Oh, thank you thank you thank you!!!” Mabel canted jump hugging Dipper.

“You haven't even heard the favor.” Dipper said with an exasperated chuckle. She calmed herself taking in a deep breath a waiting for him to speak.

“Okay first thing- Bill can’t hear about this. Got it?” He whispered, to which she nodded vigorously, “Okay. I promised Tina I’d go over to dinner tomorrow so I need you to watch Bill tomorrow night.”

Mabel saluted to him, “Can do bro bro! I’ll make sure I’m home early-ish, so you can go out. Though...don’t you hate Tina? Why would you go over to her house?” Mabel asked softly.

Dipper groaned, “Because I promised. And-”

“You always keep them blah blah, I’m a lame-o.” Mabel mocked him. Dipper smirked going to the grocery bag with his gifts in it.

“Well, I guess your brother is too lame to give you the gift he found at the store.” Dipper said before bolting up the stairs, heading for his room before Mabel could completely process the information.

“No Dipper come back! I didn’t mean it!” Mabel jokingly whined as she ran up the steps after him. Dipper slipped into his room and locked the door with a snicker, before heading for the window. Mabel was a master picklock, and he didn’t have much time. He snickered again as he heard her run into the door.

“This won’t stop me for long.” She said, the click of the lock pins falling into place echoing after her. He darted out the triangular window, snagging the edge of the roof and hoisting himself next to the Mystery Shack sign.

“Hey, no fair!” Mabel pouted from the window after her brother. He just laughed, carefully scrambling across the roof, heading for the ladder into the shop. He heard Mabel creaking down the stairs- man this place was old- as he rushed down the ladder, much to the surprise of a certain demon who was still restocking the shelves. Said demon immediately perked up at Dipper’s entrance.

“Oh hi Pine Tree! Running from Shooting Star?” He asked, already used to their shenanigans. Before Dipper even had a chance to speak, he could hear Mabel yell from another part of the house.

“Bill! Dipper has presents he’s keeping from us, grab him!”

Dipper’s eyes bugged out as Bill gained a devilish grin. The demon cut him off as Dipper ran for the outside door, standing between him and his escape, Mabel now right behind him at the door to the living room. He attempted a feint to the right, and then a dodge left, and almost succeeded, Bill mis-stepping and falling. On his way down, Bill was still able to wrap an arm firmly around Dipper’s waist pulling the hulking human down with him.

Damn Bill’s height, Dipper always underestimated it.

“Yay, I win!” Bill called out flopping on top of Dipper. The twin couldn’t help but smile and laugh as Bill climbed on top of him to keep him in place. Their eyes met each other as both their laughter died out- Dipper felt his face heat up instantly.

Bill was on his lap, lined up in a very suggestive manner, both arms at Dipper’s sides. Bill leaned in, devilish grin on his face.

Mabel grabbed up the bag the same moment Bill realized what Dipper had realized. The demon’s grin dropped and he quickly inhaled. Bill lifted a hand up to Dipper’s jawline, resting his palm there and closing his eyes.

They both jumped when Mabel screamed, Bill enough to be on his feet. She came over to Dipper and threw her arms around him.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!” She said, shaking him back in forth as hugged him. He chuckled in spite of the the leftover awkward feelings he had because of his situation with Bill, grasping onto his sister’s arms like an anchor.

“Seriously Mabel? It’s not even that big a deal.” He said with a laugh in his voice.

She let go of him, helping him up, and shoving the bottle in his face.

“Are you kidding?! They’re _edible sparkles_! This changes _everything_! I- I need to go change my recipe for Mabel Juice with Grenda! Thank you again bro!” She said, dashing out of the room and missing Dipper’s visible wince. Ugh, Mabel Juice...the war flashbacks he got from that.

Dipper shook his head, looking to where she abandoned the bag on the floor. He picked it up, taking out the package of Toblerones and handing them to Bill.

“Okay, before you take it some weird way, these are a candy. Like, you eat them.” Dipper said as Bill took the gift, looking over it.

“They are triangles.” Bill said flatly. Dipper’s face heated up in embarrassment.

“Y-yeah, cause you’re- ya know- a triangle or- were a triangle at one point and so it’s- like a funny thing. Or something.” Dipper said, starting to ramble, “I know it’s not the greatest it’s not like- edible sparkles or anything, but they just reminded me of you and I thought hey, Bill might like eating something triangle shaped and it- it was a dumb idea sorry.” Dipper finally ended, mentally punching himself. He didn’t even know if Bill _liked_ candy.

“It’s perfect.” Bill said, a grin appearing on his face, “Let’s throw them at random people in town!”

Dipper stared at him for a moment, processing what Bill said before starting to laugh. Bill’s grin grew wider, and he started to laugh along with Dipper.

“Well at least I know he’ll be left in good hands!” Mabel said, large suitcase in her hand as she nearly dragged it through the house.

“Seriously Mabel? You’re staying one night, what do you need all that for?”

“Well, brother-o-mine, the real question is do you really want to know?” Mabel returned with a waggle of her eyebrows. His silence answered the question.

“Where are you going, Shooting Star?” Bill asked, more inquisitive than accusing.

“Spending the night at Grenda’s don’t wait up!” She said, pulling her suitcase out the door and running haphazardly to the car.

The two men watched her almost trip twice, before she climbed into the truck, and floored it towards town. Dipper smiled towards Bill who returned it.

“Well. I’m glad you enjoyed your gift Bill.” Dipper said. Bill looked the package, then back to Dipper.

“Why did you get me these? Not why did you get me this thing, but why get me anything at all? It’s not what I asked you to get.” Bill looked at Dipper expectantly.

The question confused Dipper.

“Because it’s a gift?” He responded.

“Yeah, that sounded reassuring.” Bill said.

“Like...Bill you do know what a gift is right? Like- wait, you’ve already given me one.” Dipper said, motioning to the necklace.

“That was to get you to stop being mad at me. And it worked” Bill reminded him.

“Well- that’s true, that makes it an apology gift. Just- I got you a gift because I hoped it would make you happy.” Dipper admitted, making himself blush.

“...Why?” Bill asked. Dipper let out a breath, more heat rushing to his face.

“Because I- want you to be happy.” Dipper said.

“Why?” Bill asked with a grin.

Dipper groaned.

“Because I appreciate you and- yeah, okay yes because I like you, happy?” Dipper said with a huff. Bill hopped up to Dipper throwing an arm around Dipper’s shoulder, and walking towards the door.

“Entirely!” Bill said wide smirk plastered to his face, “And I should get one for you as well!”

“A gift?” Dipper asked as they went out the door, Bill locking it as it closed.

“Yes!”

Dipper shook his head and frowned, “Bill no, we can’t go into town.”

Bill let out an exaggerated sigh, “We aren’t going to town, Pine Tree. Geez, just trust me, okay kid?”

Dipper gave him a doubting look. Trust him?

He remembered himself briefly as a kid, the words on the journal- trust no one. He felt both a deep regret that he believed them, and a great relief that he no longer did.

“Fine fine, let’s go then.” Dipper said. Bill squealed- actually squealed, and grabbed Dipper’s hand hurriedly moving towards the woods.

The touch did odd things to Dipper’s insides. Odd things that he definitely recognized and definitely did not want to think about, at all, ever, no.

“S-so uh! Where are we going exactly?” Dipper asked, trying to take his mind off the fact that Bill’s hand was still wrapped around his own.

“Pfft, I can’t just tell you!” Bill said, as they broke into the underbrush of the forest. It almost seemed like they were headed towards the cliffs.

It still boggled Dipper’s mind sometimes- how he could trust Bill to take him into the woods just the two of them and know that Bill would protect him. And that Bill trusted him to do the same.

Not that Bill couldn’t handle himself. Bill had already proved he could handle himself with danger but- well, Dipper liked to think he could protect Bill.

Which ugh- he needed to stop thinking about this, another topic think of something.

“Do you think we’ll see anything on the way?” Dipper asked. Bill hadn’t stopped his pace, and Dipper let Bill drag him rapidly through the forest.

“Nah. Besides, aren’t you the know-it-all about the mysteries around here?” Bill teased looking back at him with a snide look.

Dipper returned with a smirk.

“Aren’t you the one who said you knew everything?” Dipper asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey, I never said I was omni-present. Just because I led you to believe something that may or may not be false by insinuating a half truth, doesn’t mean that’s incorrect.”

Dipper squinted trying to wrap his head around Bill’s tangle of words and very quickly decided to give up.

They walked in silence for a little while after that, heading deeper into the forest then Dipper had been in a while. He and Mabel normal kept their adventures in the shallower areas of the wood, not wanting to get too deep into anything with their Grandfather away on business. It put him on edge a bit.

The size changing crystals must be this deep. And maybe the With-intent-icles but those were weird. No one in their family had much memory of those. They never knew what happened to them, one day they were terrorizing people, controlling their minds, the next…

It reminded Dipper of that thing at the lake. He knew, just _knew_ he’d seen something about that thing somewhere, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. It must have been in a book, which was just so helpful- maybe it was in _Mandroids: A Men’s Guide to All Robotic Based Lifeforms_. It’s sad the thing was so incredibly misogynistic, it actually had the makings of a solid scholarly source. It might also have been-

“Hey Pine Tree.” Bill said. Dipper looked up, woken from his thoughts. “Remember that thing you didn’t want to talk about? Want to talk about it now?” Bill asked, a hint of eagerness in his voice.

Dipper felt his gut flip over once.

He chewed on the side of his cheek.

He was floored. Of all the things that Bill might have casually brought up, that was not what Dipper had been expecting.

It was- weird. He felt conflicted over it. On one side, he felt that Bill was his friend. He felt that he should tell Bill about it. On the other, he wasn’t sure if he was emotionally ready to talk about this today. Just hearing it hinted at made his stomach flip with apprehension.

They stopped moving. Bill turned around to look at Dipper, a serious expression on his face.

They were silent a moment, Bill staring at Dipper, Dipper looking pointedly at the ground.

Wherever they were, it was dark and it was quiet. Dipper hadn’t bothered to pay attention, too absorbed in his mind to really think about it.

“Damn Pine Tree, that bad huh?” Bill asked. Dipper nodded, sniffing and taking a long look at their surroundings. Thankfully, the other man did not comment on Dipper’s refusal to look Bill in the eye.

“Pine Tree.” Bill repeated, holding his hand up, still joined with Dipper’s. Dipper cocked his head in confusion before startling, letting go of the appendage.

Thick colors under the skin- it was probably bruised if not fractured.

Dipper hadn’t even realized he started holding down that tightly.

“Hehehe! That was a rush!” Bill said grinning and shaking his hand out. Dipper couldn’t keep his eyes away from it, guilt now added to circling gyre of his insides.

“Bill! Oh- I’m so sorry- that was so stupid of me, I’m sorry!” Dipper said, grabbing hold of the hand trying to think of what he could do to help- only to see the his hand healing itself. The thick redness from where his hand had been was already diffusing, and Dipper could feeling shifting under the skin.

“Wha- what?”

Bill playfully flicked Dipper’s nose.

“Come on now Pine Tree, you think something like that’s going to hurt me?” Bill said, re-joining their hands, “besides, I forgive you. So stop feeling all-” Bill shook his free hand in Dipper’s general direction.

“You just gestured to all of me.” Dipper said exasperated, guilt still roiling around.

Bill grinned.

“Not all of you just the...the feeling when you want to make something better because you did something wrong.” Bill said.

“Guilt.” Dipper said with a sigh. He felt another small pang of guilt for never explaining to Bill what the emotion was exactly.

“Yeah that. Stop doing that.” Bill said. He pushed Dipper’s cap down, teasing before turning around and heading back in the direction they were going.

Dipper huffed, rearranging his cap. They continued walking for a little Dipper’s emotions calming. The forest had gotten steadily darker to the point where Dipper was having trouble even seeing his way around, depending more and more on Bill to keep him from tripping on something.

“Bill, are we there yet?” Dipper said, following again.

“Almost….there. We’re here!” Bill said, throwing his arms up. Dipper looked around.

“Bill this is just some clearing in the middle of the woods.” A dark clearing. Dipper couldn’t see much more than 5 feet in front of him. He couldn’t even see the other side of the clearing. Good thing Bill was leading.

“Stay!” Bill said before heading into the darkness.

“Bill-where-?” Dipper asked, genuinely curious about what Bill was doing. Dipper could only hear Bill’s footsteps, rustling against underbrush. For a moment, he realized he wasn’t thinking how everything could go wrong. It made him smile.

“Alright, you ready Pine Tree?” Bill asked.

“Abso-”

“Too late!”

A loud thump echoed through the trees.

A blue galaxy opened in front of Dipper’s eyes. Small blue stars, millions of small blue stars imploded into existence.

Dipper gasped, eyes widening as a grin exploded to his face. He held a finger up to one of the speckles, trying to touch it. They were star dust.

“Bill-” Dipper didn’t know what to say. With another thump, more star dust nova-ed from where Bill stood. He shook something large, and the glowing powder filled the clearing, a universe of small stars existing around them.

Dipper gazed around him as he heard the patter of Bill returning. The demon stood next to him, both of them gazing outward in silence. Dipper was overcome by what was in front of him. The blue glowing dust slowly floated through the clearing, mystifying Dipper.

“Bill- what is this?” Dipper finally asked.

“It’s your gift Pine Tree!” Bill said with a large grin.

Dipper turned to him. He let out a sharp breath. His insides twisted.

“Why- did you get me a gift?” he asked.

“Pfft, are you kidding, Pine Tree? You’re a smart kid, you should know the answer to that!” Bill said with a smirking scoff. Dipper chewed the inside of his cheek looking back out to his galaxy. Without a second thought he slipped his hand into Bill’s, giving it a slight squeeze.

For a moment, he felt Bill freeze, his body tightening.

Bill gave a small squeeze back.

Dipper thought over the scene as he enjoyed it. The sound of the thump- it was something soft, velvety but solid. Something that makes a dust like- god this was beautiful- a dust like substance.

“It’s from a mushroom.” Dipper said. He returned Bill’s grin. “They’re mushroom spores.”

Bill stared at Dipper for a moment of silence before speaking.

“Well well, good figuring it out Pine Tree. Yes, it’s from a fungus. The glowing spores attract insects. The spores attach to those bugs, growing through the carapace to eat the bug from the inside out.”

Just like Bill to say that.

“It’s fascinating as well as beautiful then.” Dipper said. “Bill- thank you. I love my gift.”

“Of course you do, Pine Tree, I’ve become a master gift giver. How could you not be satisfied?” Dipper shook his head, smile cemented to his face. He rubbed circles into the back of Bill’s hand with his thumb.

He was okay with this. His older family would never approve. But he liked Bill- in a romantic sense. And at this moment, he was okay with that.

When they got home-who the hell knows? But for now, it was wonderful. For now, a demon, someone he was certain didn’t have a soul- Bill had made him feel deeply loved.

“We’ll be able to come back here right?” Dipper asked to Bill.

“Of course Pine Tree! Whenever you want to, just let me know!”

Dipper nodded, holding up his free hand and watching the stardust pass over, behind, and around it. He hoped Bill would show him the way here.

He wanted to come back here often.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I've had this chapter for about- I think 2 weeks? And I've been an ass and not edited it until now...but hey! More fic yay!! I have a few reference photos for you guys as well, just to attempt to help with picturing these 2 dorks.
> 
> Thank you guys so much for your comments! Every time I even start to doubt myself I can reread them and regain my confidence to keep going! Thank you always!
> 
> first there's a [sketch](http://citrusmewtwist.tumblr.com/post/127567108545) I did (sorry about the crappy quality, my camera died and I had to use my 3ds 
> 
> Second, here's a picture by the incredibly talented Sarah Borrows I do not own it and it was not created for this fic or anything. I just kinda want to make reference to it because it's a bara dipper, kinda like my own
> 
> Edit: There was my first piece of fanart done EVER by [ Blue Destruction](http://bluedestructionartblog.tumblr.com/) You can find the short comic [ here](http://bluedestructionartblog.tumblr.com/post/131383223710/problems-of-the-heart-by-citrustwist-in-light-of) Thank you again so so so much!


	13. If I Told Him

Mabel was not what yOu would call a natural early riser. Typically, she went to bed late in the evening- ten, eleven, maybe even midnight if she was feeling _really_ adventurous! She wasn’t like her brother. She couldn’t stay up all night, work all day, and then do it again until he’d been up for two and a half days straight and what was he thinking when he did that, and he better be sleeping because if he wasn’t she-

She needed to stop worrying about him. Bill was with him, he was fine.

It put a smile on her face that she could say that.

Well, maybe not say exactly, but think. She could think that. But wasn’t thinking just saying things in your mind with an imaginary voice that was your own, but somehow much different at the same time?

Whatever, the point was, she was not naturally good at getting up in the morning. The only reason she managed is because she set her alarm for four am so by seven she was awake enough to function.

But then there were slumber parties.

Things at Marius’s mansion went splendidly except for the fact that all of Marius’s friends were incredibly gay. One of them was literally the Queen of Lichbergstein.

“Ve don’t know how zid happened, vut on my eighteent birzday I vas crowned Queen of all of Lichbergztein”

Which although disappointing to not have any rich hot guys to hit on, man did those gays know how to party! She got all of them to sign her cast!

Which is why she was asleep at five in the afternoon the day after the slumber party. She didn’t feel bad either. When she got home at noon having slept maybe three hours total, Dipper immediately sent her to bed. Dipper told her he’d wake her up around dinner when he wanted to get ready to head out, probably around six.

“Shooting Star, I need to talk to you.”

Mabel grumbled into her pillow, eyeing her clock. It was only 5:27, she still had 33 minutes of peace and quiet to enjoy, she was not doing this.The door closed softly and Bill walked up to her. He gripped her shoulders lightly.

“Shooting Staaaaaaaarrrrrrr.” Bill whined and holy hells that really was as annoying as Dipper was always telling her it was.

“God- okay Bill- I’m up, I’m up.” Mabel said rising up in bed, her blanket pooling into her lap. “What did you want?”

Bill stared at her, now spontaneously complacent. Mabel squinted at him waiting for his blank expression to change. What was he even doing up this early? He slept like a rock normally, sometimes he was even worse than Dipper.

Mabel groaned and lie back down, throwing a pillow over her face.

“Bill if you’re not going to say anything-”

“I think Dipper is casting spells. Necromantic spells.” Bill said seriously.

Shock ran through Mabel’s veins and she sat up immediately.

The serious look Bill was giving her made a worm of doubt enter her system. She didn’t think that Dipper would ever practice magic, but… Mabel didn’t know Bill to ever be this serious, or openly glare this much. It made her worry.

“Pffft, Dipper? Come on, he doesn’t practice magic even a little bit!” Mabel said with a nervous chuckle. Bill took another step into the room.

“Shooting Star, we both know about Dipper’s latent magical ability.” Bill said, still no nonsense in his voice.

Mabel’s demeanor changed immediately.

Mabel tensed, eyes narrowing and her death-glare coming out. For a single moment she doubted her entire relationship with Bill. Bill was focused so much on Dipper, and although he’d had a plausible , this could be the real reason. Damnit, why didn't she think of this before, of course that’s what this was about!

“Whoa, Shooting Star, calm down!” Bill said with a small chuckle, putting his hands up in front of him, “Geez, I didn’t realize this was so sensitive. Wait a minute, is this what Dipper never wants to talk about?”

Another flippant reaction- this time Mabel could feel herself shutting down.

“It is, isn’t it?” Bill asked, his brows furrowing. Mabel sighed.

“Not- not exactly.” She said, “Oh Dipper’s going to kill me for talking about this.”

“Oh! All the better.” Bill said. The demon sat down on the corner of her bed, face now devoid of emotion.

“I’m- not going to tell you everything. And what I do tell you you have to promise not to tell Dipper.”

“Not a word!”

“I mean that Bill.” Mabel said, sending a warning glare. Bill rolled his eyes.

“Yeah yeah, I already said I wasn’t going to tell him now spill!”

Mabel sighed again. Okay. Here goes.

“Dipper first learned about his magical ability at the end of high school. Although he thought it was cool, he didn’t want to pursue it.”

“Beacon effect?” Bill asked quietly, half in thought. Mabel nodded.

It was his biggest fear- the Beacon effect stated a kind of rule when it comes to magic- the more magic you practice, and the stronger the magic, the brighter your individual signature becomes. And like bugs to a zapper, craziness will come running towards the light. In a place like Gravity Fall, even the simplest spell can cause the user havoc.

“When we were in college and away from all of- this,” Mabel said waving her hand around, “I persuaded him to start trying it out again. And someone- took advantage of it.” Mabel said looking towards the ground, “...and it was my fault.”

Bill gave her a serious look. She could barely look at him, still feeling ashamed of herself.

“And so he doesn’t do magic because of it?” Bill asked. She nodded.

“It almost killed him.” Mabel admitted quietly.

Bill looked away from her, contemplating. And Mabel let him. She’d done enough talking for now; if he wanted time to think, that’s just what he’d get.

She leaned back against her headboard exhaling  a long breath. It’d been awhile since either of them had mentioned it. Mabel made sure to steer clear of even remotely touching the subject. For a long time she didn’t even use the word magic. She’d say pandas- she was pretty sure Dipper never caught onto it either.

“That still doesn’t explain my problem though.” Bill said frowning deeply.

“Which you have yet to tell me about.” Mabel pointed out with a small smile creeping to her lips.

Bill remained silent for a moment before looking to Mabel.

“I thought he was practicing necromancy because he’s in my head all the time.” Bill said seriously, he stood up and started pacing, “And I mean all the time. It’s getting hard to concentrate on anything because the moment I do there he goes invading my mind again! And so I thought to myself ‘you know Bill, what’s the only thing that can invade my mind? Oh that’s right, mnemic necromancy!’ And Pine Tree is about the only person with enough power to be able to do that. Well, except for your uncle and grandfather, but they’re gone at the moment, which leaves Pine Tree.”

After the first sentence Mabel was struggling to contain her giggles. She wanted to respect his complete and utter lack of emotional knowledge- it wasn’t his fault he’d never felt a crush before. Which...wait.

Why was he feeling a crush?

Trust and friendliness that he showed them was one thing. This was a different thing altogether.

He really _was_ growing a soul somehow.

“Which now doesn’t make sense because he apparently avoids magic completely, which is stupid- he’s a stupid human! I’m a god, and I want him out of my head!” Bill was yelling at this point and Mabel was no longer having to hold back giggles. Between her revelation and how upset Bill was getting over this, it was impossible for Mabel to feel so giggly.

“Bill do me a favor- take in a deep breath.”

Bill huffed in a small puff of air.

“A little more.”

Another small puff.

“Okay, that’s almost good.” Mabel said with a smile, “Now just hold it in for a moment before letting it all out.”

Bill didn’t exhale.

“Just let that out whenever.”

No exhale.

“Whenever.”

Still nothing.

“Just woosh that big breath on outta there.”

Nothing.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Bill was turning red and purple.

“Bill, really, you need to breath.”

The demon finally exhaled huffing a bit as he regained his breath. He flopped down in front of Mabel on the bed eyes closed, brows furrowed.

“This is infuriating.”

Mabel did chuckle a bit there moving to be side by side with the demon.

“I think I know what’s going on here,” Mabel started, “At the very least I can tell you it’s certainly not Dipper practicing mn-  mnornic necrowhatever on you.”

Bill gave her an exasperated look.

“Then what else could it be?”

Mabel let out a deep breath. She wasn’t sure how Bill was going to respond to this.

“I think that you- ya know, like him.” Mabel said, trying not to be too blunt. She felt like this was one of those times where Dipper would yell at her for being too blunt.

Bill rolled his eyes.

“Duh Shooting Star, we’ve been over this already. He’s my favorite.” Bill said. Mabel immediately shot up pointing at him.

“Yes yes! That’s what I mean though! See- ugh.” Fuck it Mabel was just going to be blunt. “I think you like him romantically, Bill. For humans, the person we like the best is often the one we feel a romantic attraction to.”

Bill’s scowled.

“That’s not possible.”

“Why not?” Mabel asked confused. He sounded so sure of himself.

“No soul, remember? I’m a demon I can’t feel...ugh, _affection_.” that disgust again.

Mabel rolled her eyes.

“And why not?” Mabel repeated.

Bill pondered for a moment, a deep look of concentration coming to his face. His face stayed like that a moment before contorting through several different emotions. One very clear was recognition. It still wasn’t getting them anywhere though.

She’d have to try a different approach.

“Okay, let’s try this differently.” Mabel said, breaking Bill from his thoughts, “Let’s say, hypothetically, you can feel romantic affection.”

“But I can’t.”

Mabel rolled her eyes.

“That’s why I said hypothetically. Now shoosh. So, typically a person feels romantically attracted to another person for a number of different reasons, whether there’s an emotional connection, a physical one, or both. So what do you like about Dipper?”

Bill gave her a confused look.

“I don’t understand.”

Mabel sighed. Of course this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Close your eyes.”

Bill sighed and looked at the ceiling and after another huff, closed his eyes.

“Are you thinking about him right now?” Mabel asked.

“Of course I am. It’s disgusting.” Bill spat.

That irked her a bit, but she’d put it off as Bill being a dumb demon butthead.

“Wellllll- whatcha thinking about specifically? Describe what you’re seeing.” She said.

Bill frowned at that.

“It’s just...his face.” Bill said with a shrug.

Well this was almost progress.

“Okay, so what does his face look like? Is he smiling or is he angry or…?”

Bill cocked his head to the side.

“It...changes a lot. Right now, he’s smiling.” Bill said, “And it makes me want to see him smile in real life.”

Mabel almost melted. That was so freaking adorable! Who knew a demonic triangle could be so heart warming.

“It makes me want to lick his eyeball.”

Welp, heart-warmth gone.

“W-well, that’s not a very _typical_ display of physical affection but- you know- progress.” Mabel said with a nodded. Bill sighed opening his eyes.

“It’s like this all the time! I just want it to stop.” Bill said exasperated.

“Bill.” Mabel said getting his attention, “I know you don’t entirely believe me, and I know you think it’s impossible but...I really do think you’re romantically attracted to Dipper.”

Bill looked away from her a deep frown on his face.

“I can’t be, Shooting Star. It wasn’t suppose to work like that.” Bill nearly whispered, “It’s- this wasn’t suppose to happen. And I never understand what’s going on or what the fuck these feelings are- and I’m confused all the time and I _hate B̴̛̋͐̐E̓̃͋̈́̿ͣͦͬ͒I͋́ͬ͆̐̌̓͘͝Nͭͧͤ̍̋ͭ̽̄͠G̶ͦͦ̍ͩ͆ͮ̆̚_ ͆̓̋͡ ** _C̵̦̠͖͓̩̭̪̻ͫ̄͞O̷̧̠͖̳͈̲͂̉̈́̏̆̊̄̾N̸̹̪ͯ̈́́͟F̢͍̦̮͙̯̣͐̄͛ͬͬ͡͞Ứ̷̠͕̲̤̹̖̹̓͋S̥͚̤̏̍̈̀͗͂͗E̴̡̖̹̥͇̱̯͐͗ͬ̽ͯ̎̆ͧͥ͡ͅD̯̬͚̝̒͐_**.” Bill said his eyes and hair flashing red. He calmed himself down after a moment, pouting and sniffing, water gathering at the corners of his eyes. “And now I just want to bash my face through Pine Tree’s chest and hide under his ribs and I _hate_ it.”

Mabel never knew someone could be this endearing and creepy at the same time. But of course this was Bill. She didn’t know what she expected.

“Oh Bill…” Mabel said. She grabbed his hand and he immediately squeezed back, rivulets running down from the corner of his eyes as he huffed in anger.

“Bill, why haven’t you tried- well, anything- with Dipper yet?” Mabel asked.

Bill sneered at the ceiling.

“No because, one, it’s disgusting and I shouldn’t feel this way-”

“Nope, you’re not continuing, we’re stopping there for now.” Mabel interrupted immediately. Bill sighed in exasperation.

“Bill, there is no ‘correct’ way to feel. You can’t just say ‘I shouldn’t feel this way.’ Emotion is chaotic it’s- it’s illogical.”

“I already know that Shooting Star.”

“I wasn’t finished.” she said, hushing him, “When you are around Dipper- when you guys do things together- does that make you happy.”

Bill shifted around in silence for a little while.

“No.” Bill obviously lied.

Mabel glared at him.

“Bill, there’s a lot of shit I will take. Lying isn’t one of them.”

Bill clenched his jaw, teeth grinding as he worked in his mind.

“...Yes.” he ground out.

“Then Bill what’s the problem, why are you freaking out?” Mabel asked.

“Because it’s _wrong_.” Bill spat at her. “If _you_ went and gouged out the eyes of a kitten and felt good about doing, you’d be freaking out, right?”

Mabel’s faced paled at even thinking about it. She nodded.

“I- I can’t say I understand how you feel, it but I understand why. Sorry I invalidated you.” Mabel said. Bill deflated at that. They both turned back to the ceiling, still hand in hand though Bill wasn’t hanging on as tightly anymore. A hopelessness hung over both of them as they thought about the problem at hand.

“So what do I do?” Bill asked.

Mabel thought about it for a moment. This would take baby steps.

“I think, for now, we need to try and lower the disgust portion of your feelings.” Mabel said, “Whenever you have a thought about Dipper don’t just immediately write it off as wrong or gross. Let yourself be happy. Tell yourself it’s okay to feel happiness when you’re around Dipper. If you reinforce your feelings with positivity it will help the disgust. You don't want to be disgusted by Dipper, right?”

Bill sighed.

“I not disgusted by Pine Tree. I’m disgusted by myself.”

“Things that used to make you happy were like- getting a really good deal and- pain and torture and stuff right? Well imagine that happiness times ten bagazillion!” Mabel said throwing her arms up, “ Emotions suck to deal with, Bill. They’re complicated and not always good. But some of them are incredible, and love is like, the best one. Love, when reciprocated- it feels like you will burst with happiness. Literally just explode into a million pieces.

“That does sound appealing.” Bill agreed.

“Yeah, I bet! So just- start by telling yourself it’s okay to be happy around Dipper and that you aren’t disgusting for feeling happy around Dipper.” Mabel said with a nod.

Bill nodded back before frowning.

“But what do I do about the thoughts? Should I pinch his tongue or chew on his ribs or-?”

Mabel gulped. Maybe she should have waited a bit…

“No! I mean-” she corrected, “Things like this, being in a romantic relationship, takes communication. Just talk to him about it. Express what you expressed to me, that Dipper makes you happy. That emotion is not something you’re used to, that all these feelings are overwhelming. He’ll understand,” Mabel smiled, looking at the demon, “He’s a good guy.”

“I know.” Bill agreed quietly.

The confidence Bill managed to put in those two words made her eyes water a little.

“Do you feel better?” Mabel asked.

Bill looked confused for a moment, before nodding.

“Strangely, yes. I do.”

Yes good job well done Mabel!

She patted his arm.

“Glad I could help! Anything else you want to talk about?” Bill shook his head no, “Alright then. Dipper’s going to be coming in here to wake me up any minute now- he’s late, actually. Probably freaking out about going.” Mabel snickered as she sat up.

“Going where?” Bill asked innocently.

Mabel froze for half a second realizing her slip up.

“Oh, just out on the town for the evening. Think he might be catching a movie. I’m not too sure.” Mabel said, “Honestly, I don’t think I really want to know what Dipper does by himself.” She shuttered.

Bill frowned at her before getting up from her bed. He awkwardly stood there for a moment before encircling his hands around her head and squeezing softly. Mabel sat still waiting for Bill to finish whatever attempt at physical affection he was making.

“Thank you, Shooting Star.” Bill said before letting go of her head and face. She nodded.

“You’re welcome, Bill.”

He left the room after that, probably in search of her brother to bother him. Ugh that was almost a slip up, she really needed to be more careful. With a stretch and still feeling drowsy, Mabel got out of bed to start her day- errr, night.

A few minutes into her shower she got a text from her bro saying that he snuck out while she talked with Bill and that he was walking there. She frowned at that, but didn’t question his reasoning. She knew he was upset, he just needed a breather to clear his head.

She put her phone down to finish her shower. Hopping out quickly she dried off and got dressed, ready to spend her evening knitting in front of the tv or doing fun things with Bill like Werewolf Royalty Torture Mall. It was a mix of three different games, with the torture portion mixed in to make Bill happy.

Mabel sent a quick response to Dipper before grabbing the game and running to collect Bill.

  
  
  


________

 

Dipper sighed as he walked up the road. The evening was cool and he was in desperate need to clear his head. This whole dinner with Tina thing had his hackles risen to new heights. Admittedly, he didn’t even know why. Yeah a little nervousness made sense, but he figured he’d be feeling more contempt or just- something other than apprehension. It was just something about Tina that made him incredibly uncomfortable. And he had a feeling her friends would do the same.

Dipper took in a deep breath before letting it out. Taking out his phone, he sent a message to Mabel letting her know that he was on his way. When he had come to wake her up, he heard Bill and her talking. He sounded upset. It had admittedly hurt his feelings a little; whenever Bill had had a problem, he’d always come right to Dipper to solve it. This time he went to Mabel. This must be how she always felt. Still, it had provided the distraction he needed to get out of the house undetected.

The entire day had been weird mostly because of Bill, though Dipper knew his nerves didn’t help. He got up early and made pancakes for him and Bill. When Bill got up he stared at Dipper for a good five minutes before randomly coming up to him with a scowl and two pancakes and clapping them over Dipper’s eyes. Things just got worse from there.

No matter where Dipper went, Bill followed switching at random from his normal cheery self to this scowly nearly silent shadow. It actually got Dipper concerned that Bill was acting even more unusual than usual, but when Dipper asked about it, Bill waved it off as nothing with a smile, then got mad and spit water at him, and _then_ got frustrated and threw an entire row of Stan Bobbleheads off the shelf. And that only made him even more nervous and-

And here he was. Walking to a dinner engagement that he didn’t want to go to, nervous as hell and this fresh air he hoped would make things better was not helping at all.

Thank god Mabel got home when she did. She distracted Bill long enough for Dipper to head up to his room and get busy reading. He was glad Bill respected that boundary, not bothering him. Instead he sat on his bed and pouted until he got bored enough to do some reading of his own. He and Mabel had found that Bill had a weird fascination with the Encyclopedia Sepia books, and he had a large stack of Dipper’s old copies under his bed.

He looked at his phone, ignoring Mabel’s response when he saw the words, “cyan bumbersnagel” were included in the message. He double checked Tina’s address in Gaggle Maps, trying his best to calm himself as he walked the distance. She was on the southeast part of town, by the water tower.

It was built on the old empty lot adjacent to the water tower. Which- strange, he didn’t really remember the house being built. Whoever built it had somehow managed to capture the same old town architecture that Gravity Falls had, seamlessly blending the house into the environment around it.

The house itself was a split level, the frontdoor more on the house of the house than the actual front. The door was insanely ornate, wood carved into interesting geometric patterns. He texted Mabel real quick and, with a deep breath, Dipper knocked on the door.

  
  


______

 

“Woo! Judas’s Cradle!” Bill exclaimed throwing his hands in the air. “Time to take out Christina!”

“Bill why do you always kill Christina first?” Mabel asked, exasperated, checking her phone. It was from her brother, saying ‘Welp- here goes nothing.’

“Because she-” Bill was interrupted by the living room door slamming open

“Grunkle Stan, you’re back!...again!”

“Mabel, where’s your brother?” Stan asked as he entered the room.

“Hey Fingers, haven’t seen you in a while! Had any good dreams lately?” Bill asked.

“Bill, don’t antagonize.” Mabel hissed at him. Stanley seemed to ignore him though, also searching around for Dipper.

“Mabel- where is Dipper?” Stanford asked again. Already heading up the stairs.

“He went out for the night- why, what’s wrong?” Mabel asked. The two older men gave each other a look before heading into the room. Mabel and Bill stood up, Mabel wearily eyeing the two men. “Are you guys going to tell me what’s wrong or just loom there being all stupid macho?”

Stanley sighed, putting a hand on Ford’s arm as he made to talk. Stanley spoke instead of his brother.

“We believe Dipper’s in trouble. And we need you to trust us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, part 1 of 2 updates coming tonight along with that poll I had talked about earlier! Bit smaller chapter but eh :D


	14. Have You Found the Yellow Sign?

“YoU finally got here Derper! Come on in!”

Dipper winced, walking into Tina’s house.

“Hey Tina. How’s it going?” he asked, looking around. Everything was much more cozy then he would have expected. The foyer split, a half staircase going downward, a full staircase going up. From what he could see at the ends of both, the house was dimly lit, full of warm and earthy colors. Both were cluttered, bookshelves and sides tables housing knick knacks and books.

“It’s good! We’re all upstairs, just about to have dinner.” Tina explained beckoning for Dipper to follow her that way. At the mention of food he sniffed the air and grimaced. Whatever it was smelled gross. Like his old socks when he was a teenager.

The upstairs was one huge landing, living room kitchen and dining room not even connect via walls. There’s a hallway just left of the stairs with several doors throughout. The dining room table had three people seated around it, all with some kind of soup in front of them.

Dipper recognized one them immediately- the guy that Tina had brought into the mystery shack. Dipper had thought it was her boyfriend at the time, now he was not so sure. The two could be ex’s and still get along, but it seemed an unlikely possibility. The man’s face fell when Dipper entered the room.

The other two people, a young man with dull red hair and a beefy young woman with glasses and a round face, Dipper had never seen before. Actually, he thought he’d seen the redhead at the diner as a busboy, but he wasn’t sure how accurate that was.

“Hey guys! This is Dipper, the guy I’ve been telling you about! Dipper this is Anthony,” She pointed to her maybe not ex, He waved with a frown on his face, “Gerald” She pointed to the redhead who grinned and saluted, “and Bethany. She’s a guest tonight like you!”

“Hi…” Dipper said nervously giving them a slight wave.

“Go ahead and take a seat where ever. The food looks about done, you came at the perfect time!” Tina said heading over to the kitchen, “Unfortunately, my mom’s going to be a late. Stuff came up at work.”

“Oh that’s alright. Ms. Bree can join us whenever, we all know how busy she gets.” Bethany said. She was looking at Dipper, but leaning towards Tina it was...just weird.

“Yeah. Besides she always complains when we talk about are artistic interests.” Gerald said, taking a spoonful of the soup.

“Oh are you guys artists?” Dipper asked. They looked at him with vague smiles for a moment. Tina came back with a large platter of- some...animal? Dipper gulped not quite what it was that she came out with- and fuck it smelled _awful_.

“Not exactly artists ourselves,” Tina admitted, “But we certainly enjoy the fruits of their labors.” She flashed a smile at Dipper.

Tina cut into the meat, putting equal portions on a few plates.

“Do you have an interest in art yourself Dipper?” Bethany asked. He flushed a bit.

“Well I’ll admit it’s not exactly my primary interest. But my sister was an art major, so things have definitely rubbed off on me a bit.” He said with a strained smile. It was true, he had picked up a few things from when Mabel was in college and talked about it incessantly.

“Oh really? What’s your sister’s primary medium?” Tina asked as she handed him his portion. He flinched at the smell. “Oh yeah, I know the scent can be a bit over powering. Definitely try some though, it’s much better than you’d think.”

Dipper nodded in response, albeit reluctantly.

“S-she’s a fabric artist.” Dipper said, using Mabel’s words.

“Oh? Well, that’s different.” Bethany said shortly. Dipper didn’t know what that meant.

“Dipper, you don’t mind if we turn on some music right?” Gerald asked, taking out his phone.

“No, it’s fine.”

Gerald hit the touch screen and put the phone next to him.

Dipper knew what music was. He liked to think, of all the art forms, music was the one he connected with the most.

Whatever was coming out of the guy’s phone was certainly...well it was definitely sound.

Dipper could describe it as a series of metallic pitched sounds. They came in specific series with a droning in the background. It was definitely otherworldly- the only term Dipper could think of was exotic, but it most definitely did not fit. Whatever it was, it was incredibly unsettling.

“We’re mostly thespians.” Bethany said as she dug into the meat in front of her. If it could even be called that. “Though I know Anthony is a huge fan of painting, and of course Gerald is a music nut.”

Gerald pouted at her, chewing.

“Well, you know, we haven’t gotten a chance to discuss our favorite play in a while.” Tina said after swallowing, “And my mom isn’t here. You guys want to talk about it?”

The topic piqued Dipper’s interest. He did have a soft spot for musicals after all.

“What’s the play?” He asked. The others looked at each other and smiled. Except for Anthony. Combined with the music and the smell of the food, this whole thing was really starting to creep Dipper out. Tina finally turned to him after they decided to stop being eerie.

“It’s called the King in Yellow.”

 

________

 

“What? What kind of trouble?” Mabel asked looking at the two men cautiously.

“Mabel. Come here.” Her Grunkle said, beckoning her closer. Something was wrong. She didn’t know what, but something was very very wrong.

“Why?” Mabel asked, posture turning defensive. She narrowed her eyes slightly at the two men in front of her.

“Mabel, we’re asking you to trust us. Please.” Stanley said. She bite her bottom lip, still not liking the situation.

“Then why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?” Mabel asked.

“Because,” Bill interrupted, glaring at the two men, “They’re going to try something that would break our deal, Shooting Star.”

There was a good ten seconds of total silence, no one talking or moving.

“Do you mean to tell me,” Grunkle Stan started, “That you made a deal with Bill. After everything that happened the first time I got back.”

Mabel inhaled.

“Yes.” She said simply.

Stanford let out a shaky breath.

“Get out of my house.”

 

________

 

“The King in Yellow?” Dipper asked. It didn’t ring any bells. “What’s it about?”

The group hummed in approval. God these people were weird. I mean they were obviously trying to include him, which was nice, but geez. Definitely wasn’t coming back, that was for sure.

“Oh, it’s very interesting. It’s a pretty rare play, I’m not surprised you’ve never heard of it before.” Tina said.

“It’s an allegory,” Bethany picked up, “It describes a man at a grotesque themed masquerade ball. When everyone else takes off their masks at the end of the evening he admits that he has no mask. Everyone goes insane from realizing his horrific ‘mask’ was just his face all along.”

“Oh I see! So the allegory comes in as a representation of the figurative ‘mask’ covering for the evil that is in our everyday lives?” Dipper asked. The others nodded, continuing to eat.

“Yeah, exactly. And the nobles attending the ball can’t take being faced with the evils they have committed.”

“It sounds very Dorian Grey.” Dipper observed, with the secret knowledge that Oscar Wilde wrote more biographies than he did fiction.

“In the metaphorical sense, I can see the connection.” Gerald agreed, “This play is much more subtle than that though.”

Dipper grinned at that.

“Yeah, Wilde isn’t known for his subtlety.”

Tina hummed to get his attention as she swallowed another bite.

“Were you an English major Dipper?”

Dipper shook his head. “No, I um-,” He blushed. He wasn’t sure how to explain his career choice to this group. He didn’t know if he trusted them not to laugh at him. “Well I majored in the Mathematics and the uh- Paranormal Sciences.”

Bethany especially perked up at this, but much to Dipper’s surprise, not a single one of the young adults teased him. In fact they looked...mildly interested.

“Where’d you go to get that degree?” Bethany asked, “I was looking for a good program for it.”

“I went to Williamette. My sister and I commuted.”

“Oh! That’s was my number one school for a while,” Tina said, “Unfortunately, they weren’t giving me any funding for it.”

Well, Dipper certainly dodged a bullet there.

“So Dipper. What kind of experiences have you had to make you pursue a degree in Paranormal Sciences?”

Bethany’s tone was neither harsh nor mocking, but something about it made Dipper squirm. He didn’t have much experience with micro-aggressions and just assumed that’s what it was. Though why she was now suddenly being aggressive didn’t make much sense.

He found himself immediately on the defensive either way.

“Well I- just- always had an interest in the paranormal. So I figured- why not explore that interest?”

That didn’t seem to be the right answer, Bethany’s smile dropping slightly.

“But uh- hey! You guys are mostly done, right? I don’t mean to rush you but I’m very curious about this play you mentioned.” Dipper said. He was being honest too. There was something about the name that- rang a bell of sorts in the back of his mind.

“Well, normally we’d sit around the table and chat a bit more here, but yeah! It’s in the study! Beth, can you show him? Anthony and I will clean up from dinner. Right Anthony?” The man frowned at Tina but gave her a slight nod in affirmation.

“Alright sounds good.” Dipper said, leaving his plate still untouched as Bethany led him downstairs towards the study.

  
  


_________

 

“Grunkle Stan-”

“Ford-”

“No!” Stanford slammed his fist into the wall, causing Mabel to jump. Bill immediately moved in front of her, between her and Stanford.

“Get out! Now!” He yelled, throwing a hand towards the door.

“Stanford!”

“What?!”

The twins glared at one another. Stanford sneered.

“This is _my_ house.”

“No,” Stanley returned, pointing for emphasis, “This is _our_ house.”

Mabel put a hand on Bill’s shoulder a squeezed lightly. He looked back at her grinning madly and winking. It was both reassuring and anxiety inducing.

“Are you kidding me?! This is Bill! Are you seriously going to take his side?!”

“I’m not on anyone’s side! But if your grand-niece thought that it was a good idea to make a deal with Bill Cipher then maybe we better attempt to figure out why!”

Stanford didn’t have anything to add besides grinding of teeth.

“Mabel.” Stanley said to get her attention. “What was this deal with Bill?”

Mabel fidgeted for a moment, pulling Bill back gently to rest at her side. He did so with a frown in her direction.

“I wanted to make sure you guys didn’t do anything rash.” Mabel started, although that was only a half truth at best. “And I wanted to make sure Bill stayed around.”

“Alright. Can you tell us the specifics of this deal?” Stanley asked calmly.

“I- made a deal with Bill saying that I wanted Bill to live with us- Dipper and me. And if either of you purposefully attempted to break the deal through magic or other means, he would get my soul. But if he attempted to break the deal without us mutually deciding on that, then I would get one free favor of my choosing.”

Stanford yelled a curse turning away from them with his hands up.

Stanley nodded, absorbing the information. “I’m assuming you’ve gotten all the major loopholes out?”

Mabel nodded.

“Why make a deal where Bill has to live with you?” Stanley asked.

“Because that was Pine Tree’s half of the original deal!” Bill chimed in with a bright grin. “He wanted Mackerel's heart to be fixed, I wanted to live with him!”

Stanley nodded. “And I’m sure Ford over here wasn’t appreciative of that?”

Mabel glared at his back, “He didn’t even ask what the deal was.”

Her Grunkle rubbed the back of his neck.

“Okay. So to cement Dipper’s deal and make sure that no matter what, Bill was in a position where he was living with you and Dipper, you made a deal with him yourself.” Stanley reiterated.

“That was the idea.” Mabel said.

“What the hell were you thinking?!”

Mabel was taken aback by her grandfather’s sudden change of heart.

“I was thinking that Bill is my friend and that you two idiots were going to screw something up and cause Dipper to lose his soul!”

“Bill’s your-?! Bill Cipher is a lot of things, but he is not your friend. Bill is a demon, Mabel. Do you remember what happened last time you and Dipper decided to trust a demon?”

“Don’t you dare blame that on him!” Mabel shouted back at him. “And nice job trying to glance over the fact that you would have completely botched any attempt to save Dipper from this deal!”

“We would have found a way to fix it! We would have made it work!”

“Oh yeah, cause that portal worked _real_ well!”

Stanley faltered like he’d been stuck with a needle.

“MABEL AMARANTH PINES!” Stanford whirled back around. “If you _ever_ want to be part of this family again you will apologize.  NOW.”

Mabel shifted in place, water coming to her eyes. Thank god Bill just stayed silent and did not antagonize-

“Why should she have to apologize? She’s right!”

Oh god Bill why why why-

“Don’t you say another fucking word-”

“I told Fingers not to activate the portal. It’s his own fault that happened.”

This time it was Stanford and Mabel’s turn to falter. Stanley flinched.

“Bill- what?” Mabel asked, turning to the demon.

“What? Wait…” Bill’s eyes narrowed, grin coming to his lips, “you never told them, did you?”

“Stanley?” Stanford asked, his voice shaking. Mabel put her hand to her mouth closing her eyes. She suddenly felt like an intruder into a private conversation.

“Do you mean to tell me,” Stanford started, “That Bill specifically told you _not_ to activate the portal and you did it anyway?”

Mabel gave a look to Bill trying to hold in a sob. His smile fell when he realize how upset Mabel was. He took a hand away from her mouth.

She felt betrayed. Their relationship with Bill, the antagonistic relations they’d always kept all started because of a lie.

“He never betrayed you.” Stanford said quietly.

Stanley remained silent.

“We need to get Dipper.” Mabel said letting out a shaky breath. “And figure out what we’re going to do about...everything.”

The Stans both nodded neither of them looking at the other.

“Where did you say he was, Mabel?”

Mabel sniffed wiping at her eyes with her free hand.

“He’s uhh- he’s with this girl he promised dinner with, Tina.”

“What?!”

Mabel looked over to Bill as the demon dropped her hand. She frowned at him, confused at why he sounded so taken aback. He almost sounded scared.

“I um-” Mabel cleared her throat, “I said he went to Tina’s for a dinner date.”

Bill’s expression  transformed from a look of horror, to a look of anger and suddenly his bronze colored skin and galaxy of freckles was replaced by a crimson red.

“HĘ͍̙͓̖͇̈ͣ͋͑̓̿ ̨̲͐̐͆̐̓Ḋ̦̜̪̦̜̓͞I̪̣̳̝̪̽̂ͣͦ̇̋̚D̯̹̥ͩ̉̈͑̎̈̽͝ ̢̳͈̥̜ͫͅW͇̙̥͈̠͛̓͜H̦̮̰͔̺̏Ä́̐̂̑͏̭̣̗̥̞T̰̩̪̰̗̩͊̈̐͛?!”

 

__________

 

“I have no idea where she might have put it, sorry. There’s one last place it might be…” Bethany said as she looked through the wall length bookshelf. Dipper had to admit, Tina’s mom had a very impressive collection of books. At least, many of them looked pretty expensive. There were even one in a special case in the corner of the room. It was titled _De Vermis Mysteriis_ and although it was well take care of, the book looked ancient. The cover was aged leather, a faded engraved symbol on the cover. The symbol was yellow, three pronged with a dot and ring in the center. Considering the latin and the age of the cover, Dipper would’ve put it around late 16th century.

It was weird but he felt so certain he’d seen this before somewhere.

Must just be deja vu, even if he was having an awful lot of it recently.

“Hey I found it if you- oh! Caught your eye huh?” Bethany said, looking at the book. Dipper nodded.

“What exactly is it?” Dipper asked, absentmindedly taking the other book from Bethany.

“Oh it’s some old religious text. It means the-”

“The Mysteries of the Worm, yeah,” Dipper said. He looked over to Bethany who was giving him a knowing smile, and Dipper blushed. “I might have taken a few years of latin in college.”

And high school.

And started studying it when he was fourteen.

“Ms. Bree is a bit of a collector of old books. She’s a doctor and surgeon so she has plenty of money to spend.”

Dipper nodded before finally shifting his gaze away from the book. He wasn’t going to be able to look through it without Ms. Bree here anyway, so no point in wishful thinking.

He turned to the book in hand.

“Oh.” Dipper said, color draining from his face. “This is- um. Fascinating.”

“Yeah, the cover is a little morbid.”

That was an understatement.

It showed a horrific faced man in the center of the cover emaciated and covered from head to toe in yellow wrappings. He was smiling at the viewer gesturing to a slaughter. It wasn’t just a slaughter though. The largest character in the foreground was someone with their back rib cage torn open and broken to resemble broken wings while their sphincter muscle was ripped out and placed over their flaccid penis hanging out of the mouth hole of a masquerade mask.

Not exactly what Dipper would call ‘a little morbid.’

Swallowing, he opened the book reading quickly over the character list before delving directly into Act 1.

 

________________

 

“W̨̞̳̺̥̙H̙̫̮͑ͮ̄̃ͮ̒ͥ͡Y̹͗́̍̀ ̻̇ͣDͨ̅͏̹̖̱̤͔͉ͅI̢̗̣̮̒̈ͮͬͧD̳̩͖̹̟̟ͥ̈́̍̂̆N͍̩̼̺ͪ̅͆’̯̻̱̯̺̗͑ͮT̽͂ͥ̀ͥ͏̮̯ ̤͖̹̬̝͙̎͂̀͑H̿ͮ̎E͖̥̗̰͈͇ͥ̍ͩ͑̕ ̹̤̞͚͐ͥͩ̈̋͜T͇͔̉̿E̼̼̻̼͉͛̑͛ͭ̿ͬͯ̕L̓̾ͤ̍̆ͩ͡L̷͇͕̳̥͇̬̈̇͐̔̈̒̐ ͍̓ͫ̓̐M̨̖̭͖̞̰Ḙ̘̬̪̮̠̱̒̾ͧ?!” Bill said, his voice distorting greatly as he shook with rage. Mabel stared mute with shock.

The demon grabbed his own hair and screeched. His eyes had turned black and his hair was a stark white.

Both of the Stans’ eyes were bugged out just as much as Mabel’s as they watched Bill slam his head into the wall. The half foot thick stone wall.

Bill started taking deep breaths, obviously trying to calm himself as with every breath, his color returned a bit more to normal. With three more breaths, Bill was halfway back to his normal color and he left the hole in the wall.

“We need to get to him!” Bill said turning towards Mabel.

“Bill wha- what the hell was that?!”

“She’s an Eldritch Horror Mabel!” Bill said. That woke up both Stans, the two men gasping in shock.

Mabel felt the color from her face drain.

“A-a what-”

“An Eldritch Horror! You know, tentacles, multiple eyes, abominations of evil ‘gods?’ Ringing any bells here?!”

Mabel gripped the sides of her head.

“But- but no, that doesn’t make any sense why-”

And then it hit her.

Dipper.

She was after Dipper.

“Oh my god, Tina’s after Dipper.”

“He’s so F̱̗̪̤́͛ͤͤ̅̉̊͢U̞̝̩͕̞͊ͣC͛͑͑̇͏̙̬͓K͈͉̦͚̽ͥͩ̆̾͐͝I̦̪̬̫̟̦̤N͎̗̤̤̂̑͐͒̅̉G̛̦̟̙ͨͫ̈̓ͅ-!” Bill snarled, flaring up again.

Mabel felt herself starting to panic. She hadn’t even gotten Tina’s address, she didn’t think anything of it! Tina had looked like just a normal girl, she hadn’t had tentacles or- or crazy weird mouths or anything! What were they going to do?! They didn’t even know-

“Everyone stop, now!” Stanley commanded. It got Bill distracted enough reduce his anger. “Right now, we need a plan of action. Dipper needs our help. Mabel, do you know where Dipper is?”

Mabel shook her head, tears falling from her eyes.

“N-no, I- I didn’t get the address, I didn’t think-”

She didn’t think.

She didn’t think- it was her fault Dipper got into this situation. If she had just paid attention to what was going on, no wonder Bill hated Tina’s guts. Why he was always attempting to keep her away from Dipper.

“That’s okay- Mabel you need to calm down. I have a tracker in his phone, I can find him.” Stanley said, attempting to reassure Mabel.

“Bill- I need you to help Mabel relax while Stanford and I get the supplies we need.” Stanley said, before grabbing his twin’s arm and dashing toward the secret basement. Bill walked to Mabel putting his hands on her shoulder, still trying his best to keep calm.

“Shooting Star. You need to not be sad right now. We have to concentrate on getting Pine Tree back and with your arm still in a cast that means you need to pay attention and stay safe. Okay?” Mabel nodded. She already knew what they were going to give her- she could be helpful even with her arm broken.

“Go get your Grappling Gun.” Bill said with a dark half smile. “I need to teach you humans how to _really_ commit murder.”

 

_____________

 

“Okay, I don’t want to spoil anything so all I’ll say is pay very close attention to Camilla and Cassilda’s dialogue.” Dipper nodded, greatly intrigued by the work by just the few opening lines. The play opened with an active scene and Dipper had to admit, the quality of the writing was extraordinary.

An exchanging of greetings from the foyer had Bethany perking up and heading out of the room.

“I’ll be right back! Ms. Bree just got home, I want to go say hi!” she said excitedly limping out of the room. She favored her left leg heavily. Dipper wondered idly what problem she might have had, before shrugging and returning to the play.

It was incredible. Right from the beginning, not only was the quality up to par, but the tone the piece managed to capture- it was perfect. A perfect mix of both disquiet and jovialness. Dipper flipped his page, starting the second scene. It began with songs sung by one of the three main characters, Cassilda. Like Bethany suggested, Dipper made sure to pay attention to what she was saying.

He heard the door open.

“Hey, Bethany!” Dipper said, eyes glued to the page, “You guys haven’t mentioned who this work is by yet. I’m really impressed, he’s an amazing-”

Dipper felt a sharp stab at the back of his neck. He cried out swinging around momentarily, trying to fend off his attacker. His vision was already blurring and he felt his muscles go lax. He fell to the floor, the book just a small distance away as he blacked out.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okie dokie! Here's the second part of the update for tonight
> 
> I wrote all of this in like- a frenzy over a 3 day period. So I hope the quality is up to snuff. I have a few extras for you guys as well!
> 
> First up, that [poll](http://vote.pollcode.com/91641648) I mentioned a few chapters back!
> 
> Second is a [playlist](https://8tracks.com/citrustwist/problems-of-the-heart) I have. It's the songs I write to- they just get me in the mood for the story and things.
> 
> Edit: I completely forgot to include something!!! I'm so sorry! The music that Gerald was listening to is called [Gamelan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZTfu4jWcI) music. Although I personally find it to be particularly pretty, most of my friends and family considered it to be "unsettling." There's a minor reason for it that I'll hopefully get to later. This was the [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDMGSWfVq0) he was listening to specifically.
> 
> Edit the 2nd: okay so my laptop 100% died about four or five days ago, so I haven't gotten the chance the write or post anything in that time. Right now I'm writing this from the family's iPad soooooooo yeah... I'm super sorry but there'll be a short delay on this work!   
>  
> 
> Thank you all so much for everything! I hope you enjoy!


	15. The Eldritch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys real quick! This chapter is a bit more gore-y then previous ones. Just want to let everyone know!

The first thiNg Dipper noticed was a tickling against his arms. He groaned, trying to smack it away, frustrated that Bill was trying to wake him up. He...couldn’t move his arm. Dipper didn’t know why he couldn’t move his arm.

In fact, he struggled to get any part of his body moving. His arms, his legs- even his neck and eyelids had trouble. His mind was walking through muck, waist deep and tripping every other step. The tickling sensation didn’t let up and he could hear a female voice muttering quietly. The sensation moved across his body, over his arms and across his chest slowly inching across one pectoral the the next across his collarbone. Waking up fully was sudden- one mental foot finally reaching solid ground and he flung himself onto it, fully conscious. He startled awake, his eyes bugging out as he gasped for air, not realizing he’d barely been able to breath just moments before.

“Hmmm. Your innate ability is more powerful than I thought- you woke up much too early.”

Dipper squinted his eyes at the figure before him.

“D...Doctor Turner?” He asked.

Dipper was thrown into mental disorder as the sensations and images around him thundered together simultaneously. He was struggling to differentiate and organize the sensory detail leaving him confused and heavy headed.

“Oh, please Dipper, call me Bree.” Doctor Turner said swatting her hand dismissively. His mind was resettling itself as he felt the tickling sensation against his collarbone again. He struggled around at the uncomfortable sensation.

Doctor Turner frowned.

“You really should stop that, young man.” she said with a small sigh, “Performing any more spells on you could corrupt the ceremony and I don’t think you’ll enjoy the alternative.”

A pang of fear drove through him. He stopped struggling, the room around him finally starting to make sense.

It was dark and musty- the lower floors, probably a basement. There were runes everywhere. The walls, the ceiling, the small space he could see on the floor, all overlapping and craggy, scratched into the surface, colored over brown. The ceiling was incredibly high though, much high than he thought a basement should be. There were industrial shelves with...things floating in them. Dipper couldn’t get a great look at what they were, and from their twisted silhouettes, he didn’t think he wanted to.

“W-what is the alternative?” Dipper asked.

Doctor Turner chuckled quietly and shook her head.

“Oh, Tina was right, you are a curious one.” Dipper attempted his best to not flinch from the tickling. From his experience, if she was dodging the question, he didn’t want to know the answer to his question.

But- wait Tina?

Tina...Tina’s mom worked in the hospital. She hadn’t been around for too long.

“You’re Tina’s mom.”

“Oh yes! I’m sorry, we had to leave that detail out for so long. Everyone knows how good you are at solving the mysteries around this place afterall. And after everything with your Great Uncle. We just decided not to risk it.”

Dipper paled, not understanding what Grunkle Stan had to do with any of this. And he couldn’t think about them right now- he was going to start crying. They wouldn’t find him for a while. He didn’t mention when he was getting home. He even forgot to give Mabel the address, how could he be so stupid-

Stop. Focus on something else.

He swallowed around the lump in his esophagus.

“Wait- you named your daughter Tina Turner?” Dipper asked. That’s almost as bad as his and Mabel’s names.

“Oh good heavens, no. Tina isn’t my daughter.” Doctor Turner said with a scoff. “Not my blood daughter anyway. We say she’s my daughter just to avoid suspicion, have a good cover story. We are a sort of family, though the kids are much more involved in that aspect of things than I am.”

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

A cult of some sort. He knew the name of that book from somewhere, he had to think. Where had he heard it?

Keep her talking. Keep her distracted.

“What did you want with Grunkle Stan?” Dipper asked.

Everytime he asked a question she stopped her brushing for a moment. He just needed to distract her for long enough.

“So I assume you know your magical potential,” She asked. Dipper looked away and said nothing, “well, when he came into the hospital, the magic sensors I have in the ER went pretty crazy- your Grunkle has quite the ability himself, and I doubt he’s used it at all, which is all the better. Then you came in.” She took a moment to look at him quizzically. It turned Dipper’s stomach. He wouldn’t let her stop though. Apparently he hit the jackpot of distractions, “You have more magical potential then just about about anyone else I’ve seen. And you’ve had barely any contamination from magical use.”

The pieces started falling into place a bit- her weird comments to his uncle, the way she never treated the situation with any kind of precedence, along with Tina’s oddities and comments.

“But why? What are you trying to do?” Dipper asked, hoping to get more monologue from the doctor. She gave him a tight smile and chuckled.

“Just lie still Dipper, we’ll get you squared away and you’ll understand everything.” Doctor Turner said, going back to what could only be painting. He jerked by accident at the tickling, feeling the sharp pain on his arm again.

Distracted, he turned his head as much as he could and gasped.

An iv was connected to his arm, blood slowly trickling from the needle, disappearing downward in the tube. Doctor Turner continued brushing his arm.

Dipper leaned his head back staring at the ceiling, glare of the lights hurting his eyes. He didn’t attempt to intimidate her with any ‘oh my family is coming for me!’ because as far as he knew, they weren’t.

No, he couldn’t think like that. He had to just keep her distracted.

“Stop moving so much, please.” She asked politely.

“Sorry- tickles.” Dipper said, head running through everything he could think of to escape. She brushed the crease of his elbow with the brush, and he mocked being tickled, jerking his arm up. It was followed by her cursing softly, the clattering of something as it hit the ground.

Doctor Turner sighed, looking at the fallen object, paint brush still poised in her hand.

“You know Dipper, I really hoped I didn’t have to do this, but that body of yours is going to be too frustrating to deal with apparently.”

There was a ripping sound accompanied by a very liquid squelching.

Dipper had messed up.

His distraction plan was a good one- but he had overstepped a boundary with this move. And he had definitely  completely fucked up.

Dipper saw Doctor Turner grow slightly in height, her face paling considerably, the ripping sounds wetter as she let out a moaning drone overtop it.

Oh gods, he hoped they found him soon.

 

Mabel tapped her foot rapidly, gnawing on her thumb nail as Grunkle Stan broke every traffic law as they raced to their destination. Mabel knew her brother was alright- and he was going to be fine. She had to know, they were twins- they knew everything about each other.

They had packed everything for the trip. Special goggles, Walkie Talkies, weird symbols of metal that she wore around her neck and was to only hold upward in an emergency. They barely let her come at all, putting her on potion duty, and she was loaded with that. With the exception of Bill, they all were strapped from head to toe with weapons. Stanley had several ancient looking books in ready access, and had put his goggles on already over his glasses.

“Alright everyone look alive! We’re almost there! Before you go inside, you must make sure you’re goggles are on- otherwise you won’t see half the stuff these things will throw at you.”

Grunkle Stan slammed against the brakes as he pulled up in front of the house Dipper was located in.

Bill was the first one out, wrenching the door off its hinge as he climbed out. Unlike the others, Bill only had his cane with him, something he insisted would be enough.

“Bill!” Mabel called after him as the man ran up the steps full speed. The 3 of them attempted to chase after him. “Bill stop! Wait for us!”

The demon ripped the door off its hinges as well, blood accompanying the toss of the door. Mabel looked in horror as Bill’s hair and body was tinged red in fury. There was a short burst of light as he walked across the threshold, the other three humans darting up the steps as Bill ascended the split level home. Mabel’s eyes darted to the door- a singed mark was on the front, one that mirrored a still smoking mark on the platform.

“Well, well, well, well, well! It looks like you little abominations have s̢̢o̵̢͜ḿe̴̷͘ţhi̵͢n̕͢҉g _͠t̡̕͡h́̕͟a͞͏t ̨b͢e̶lo҉n͢g̕ś̸ ̡t̨͡͏ó̶ M͏̸Ȩ_!” Mabel heard from Bill.

Mabel followed the two older men inside, Stanley immediately turning to them.

“Mabel, Ford, head downstairs and search for Dipper there and be on guard. We’ll look for him up here. Go!” Stanley commanded before turning and taking the stairs two at a time.

The other two raced down the stairs looking around the hallways. They heard commotion upstairs, attempting their best to ignore it Mabel followed her Grunkle as he turned left.

They ran down a short hall before coming to two doors. Stan took the door on their right, cracking the wood slightly as he hurried through. It occurred rapidly to Mabel that they should be leaving a trail in case this was a maze. She sliced through a piece of her sweater using the grappling hook’s bladed edge, dropping it behind her as she hurried to catch up with Stan, already in the process of dropping more fabric.

She caught up with him quickly as he stood at another junction- they could either go straight, a door in the right wall a few feet from the junction, or they could go right down the junction where, at the end of the hallway was a door, and just before the end again on the right hand wall, another door.

Stan grunted going straight and opening the door closest to them. It led into something like a bedroom, under furnished with just a bed and a dresser. Stan went in, flipping both over and examining the ground and walls before growling in frustration and leaving the room. He continued down the hallway as before, opening another door.

Mabel screamed as Stan vibrated in place a moment before being thrown back against the wall.

“Ch’l  f’ep nw hai li'hee n’gha!”

Mabel heard, and looked in the doorway to find a ginger man she swore she’d seen somewhere standing in the doorway. He was scowling, small bolts of electricity sparking between his fingers. Her Walkie talkie was yelling out static and she turned the device off immediately.

She turned her gun on him and fired, which he barely managed to dodge. The hook hit the back wall, impaling itself in place. She tucked it against her broken arm, grabbing a flask and throwing it between her and the ginger. A thick black fume, exploded from the area.

The Ginger cursed and stumbled back and Mabel saw the flash of what was most definitely a tentacle coming from his back legs. Grunkle Stan meanwhile, was twitching in place slowly starting to rise from the ground.

“Why is it always ginger’s that don’t have souls!” Mabel yelled, chucking another vial at him through the smoke. A sudden loud hiss and screech came from the room. She heard a squelching of flesh, her stomach curling. Sudden the screech grew, and there was a patter of feet. Mabel gasped, moving just in time as a figure with red hair dove out of the smoke.

Dodging to the left, she pulled back on her grappling hook. The rope caught the Ginger as he flew, tightening, the man thing getting it tangled in the tentacles-like growths currently bleeding and wiggling around from his back.

Mabel froze at the sight, the tentacles flicking small droplets of blood around. Mabel took another potion from the bandolier she was wearing getting ready to toss it on the creature in front of her, but a sudden hand impaled the thing in the head, a resounding crunch of broken skull and squirt of blood.

Grunkle Stan was kneeling in front of the creature, fist on what Mabel could only describe as a rail spike. Both she and Stan were breathing raggedly, staring at the body before them.

“We need to get moving.” Stan said after a few more breaths. Mabel nodded running into the room, making sure to cover her face from the black fumes as they started to die down, and taking the grappling hook out of the wall. She turned to leave, but paused, looking back at the wall. Her hook shouldn’t have pierced it.

Pushing against it, she found the wall to be spongy.

“Grunkle Stan!” She called out, pushing against it harder.

“Little shit tried to give me a heart attack,” Grunkle Stan said, rubbing his chest. “What’d you find, Mabel?”

Mabel smiled weakly for just a moment, sending a quick thank you to both Dipper and Bill. She wouldn’t think about the what if’s right now. Especially the what if Dipper never made that deal.

“I think-this is a secret door?” Mabel said, not sure. She wound her grappling hook back up, testing the wall with her elbow.

“That would make sense. Here let-”

Stan stopped talking as a sickening crack echoed from behind them.

Another sounded, the sound of bone being shattered into incorrect positions. Both Pines turned around looking into the hallway.

The Ginger’s head and upper body were being bent back. They could see the shifting of his bones with every loud crack, his upper body being bent at a disgusting angle, various upper vertebrae having shifted to collide with his shoulder blades. His neck swelled, something bulbous moving up his throat. His mouth started to widen, small tendrils poking out, forcing his jaw open. Mabel gagged when his jaw snapped out of its socket and then snapped in half, several teeth loosening and falling to the floor.

A large bloodshot eyeball strained against the newly widened opening, taking its surroundings in for only a moment, before it centered on Stan and Mabel.

Stan took a battle position, Mabel still attempting to control her gagging, gaze not leaving the creature in front of them.

The body snapped up and leaned to the side, taking the two of them in. Neither of the Pines moved, waiting on edge for the creature to move first.

Both Pines cried out as the Ginger’s body bolted towards Stan in a slither. Mabel dodged out of its way, Stan caught unaware by its attack. The older man collapsed as the Creature used the Ginger’s limbs to pin Grunkle Stan in place.

“Ma-buk!” Grunkle Stan cried out, being gagged as the tendrils started forcing his mouth open. The Creature had lined up its mouth with Stan’s, and the eye vibrated in place, straining more against the Ginger’s mouth. More teeth feel, displaced by the creature.

Mabel took aim shooting at the eye with her hook and to her shock, the hook bounced off the fleshy organ, now halfway out of the Ginger’s mouth, wiggling its last bits loose. More tendrils escaped, needling their way towards Stan’s mouth.

“MEHBELL- HURREH!” A hideous crack sounded from Grunkle Stan’s jaw.

Desperate, Mabel yanked the Star-like symbol from her neck and, with a screech, slammed it into the Eye.

Stan gasped in a breath, reeling backward as the Eye let out a sharp whistling. Its pupil gyroed around the rest of the eye tendrils reaching towards the symbol, shaking erratically.

Mabel darted to her Grunkle’s side holding onto his shoulder as the thing deflated, a deep golden blood squirting periodically from the wound. Stan was rubbing at his jaw gasping heavily as he took in ragged breaths.

The creature’s whistling finally died out, leaving its corpse like a half deflated ball. Mabel reeled in her grappling hook again, cautiously walking over to it. A small trickle of the golden blood still ran down its corpse. The symbol was bent and warped into a twisted ball of metal, no longer of any use.

To her, it was worth it.

Mabel stabbed at the thing once- twice- she wailed on the corpse. It had gotten so close to- to whatever it was trying to do to her Grunkle. If she was even a few seconds too late-

Mabel gagged again, coughing.

“Mabel. Mabel, come on sweetie, we need to find your brother.” Grunkle Stan commanded softly.

Mabel nodded taking in a deep breath. Her Grunkle had sliced open what she could now tell was- fleshy and mucusy. But it led to a downward staircase nonetheless. One that went down very far at that.

With a nod to each other, and the dropping of fabric, the two descended- 143 steps if Mabel counted right. The steps were dimly lit, darker than any other part of the house they’d encountered so far. There was no door at the bottom, only an open archway of wood. It led into a chamber that looked something like their high school gymnasium.

It was tall, wide, and deep. There were craggy, glowing runes covering every surface around the room, the walls were lined with shelving. In the center there was a single light, a surgeon’s table-

“Dipper!!” Mabel called out. He was lying nude, on the table. Some kind of writing was on his arms and chest. Stan grabbed onto her before she could run. He pointed to a figure to just the right of the light, hanging on the ceiling.

Mabel shuttered in terror.

A lumbering figure hung in the dark, slowly roping itself toward them. It had a normal sized human body, but where forearms and calves should be, there were a variety of writhing tentacles. Its belly was incredibly swollen, pregnant looking, though it sagged, and was more than half again as big as the body itself.

“Go,” Stan started, pushing Mabel towards the sidewall, “Go, go, go now!”

Mabel rushed away from her Grunkle as the man reached for his own star symbol, as well as a large crossbow, slung from his back. Mabel followed the creature as it paused a moment, facing between the two. Stan fired at her, heading in the opposite direction of Mabel. Mabel fumbled over herself, looking for a potion that could help her-

Blue- no, no mist!

Green, acid- damnit, she needed something with a kick

Her breath stuttered as she watched the creature lumber towards her Grunkle.

Mabel darted towards Dipper, finding the orange potion she was looking for.

“Stan, catch!” She called out, hurling the flask at him. He easily caught the potion, immediately, uncorking it and downing its contents. Mabel switched her attention to her brother as she heard a the woosh of fire.

“Oh, god, Dipper,” Mabel said, looking over his unconscious body. An iv was set up, slowly draining his blood and depositing it into a small bowl, a bloody paintbrush next to the bowl. The runes ran in lines, mapping out the basic skeletal structure of his body. The runes, Mabel found, were painted in his blood. God it look just like-

“Mabel look out!” Stan called.

Her head snapped up to see several tentacles flying toward her. Mabel cried out, attempting to dodge and block with her grappling hook at the same time. The contraption took most of the blow, ripped from her grasp. One tentacle had managed to hit her uninjured hand, and she screamed in pain. She saw all the flesh ripped off of her pinky finger down to the bone, from tip to knuckle.

She gasped and moaned, swiftly moving back to the wall as Stan wheeled back. Opening his mouth, he let out a stream of fire that smacked the Horror in the belly while it was distracted by Mabel.

Mabel ripped off one of her sleeves, teary eyed, messily tying it around her three fingers as blood slipped out of the wound. The Horror lost its balance, now partially aflame, crashing to the floor with a rumble. Mabel braced herself as she ran toward Dipper again, trying to catch the monster unaware- but the Horror immediately shot tentacles in her direction. Mabel backed away barely in time, gritting her teeth.

How the fuck was this thing so fast?!

The Horror stood up on all ‘fours,’ its head lulled downward. It turned back towards Stan rippling toward him at intense speeds. The man shot his last stream of fire at the Horror’s face- it blocked the blow, but was sent careening on its side, howling in pain.

The Horror stood up and stayed still, angled between both Stan and Mabel. A bellowing chant in began in the weird language the Ginger spoke, reverberating from the Horror.

Dipper’s back immediately arched, as he screamed in pain.

“Dipper!” Mabel shouted toward him. The runes on his body were glowing deeply, and his body was shaking and straining, viens already beginning to pop out from his neck. She started another attempt to get to him.

“Mabel- don’t!”

Mabel saw the incoming tentacles, dodging by the first round. She ripped a white potion from her bandolier smashing it against them- they froze instantly within a large crag of ice. The Horror’s chanting continued, moaned out in pain.

A crashing shamble came from her side in the distance, and Mabel ignored it concentrating on the next incoming wave of tentacles. Her eyes bugged as she saw a sweep from both sides coming at her.

“MABEL!”

“Shooting Star!”

Mabel felt herself gripped from the waist and hauled up, a glint of vined metal streaming into the tentacles that crashed into where she was just standing. The Horror’s moans increased in volume tenfold, but it didn’t break from its chanting.

Mabel was held tightly in protection as she crash landed, spinning a few times before skidding in the arms of her savior. they landed on the side of the room opposite the entrance, and only when they stopped did the man release her.

“B-bill!” Mabel said in panic as she got up. She was a bit bruised and very disorientated- but otherwise fine. The man in front of her-

“Sorry it took so long, Shooting Star.” Bill said as he sat up from his position. His dress clothes were only the barest of tatters, smooth tanned and freckled skin left- yet where they should be gashes, there was only smooth, if not blood covered, skin. He still had his cane, which had been severely bent at some point and the metal links on it, which Mabel now saw acted as a form of whip, were bent and breaking.

Mabel shot a look at the Horror. On its left arm, only two of the dozen tentacles survived, and they were only hanging by the barest amount of flesh.

“Thank you, Bill. Now let’s go!” She said trying to stand up, and immediately faltering.

“Shooting Star, sit down!” Bill commanded. She noticed his hair was still red, but with blood or anger, she didn’t know. “You’ve done enough,” he added in a softer tone.

“Vulgtm y’hah!” echoed from the creature as it ended its chanting.

Suddenly, Dipper’s screams took an unholy quality,

Bill shot a horrified gaze from Dipper to the Horror.

“Oh no-” He said. Dipper starting glowing a bright yellow, his body seizing violently.

The Stan twins took the moment, the Horror now distracted, both men firing at the monster’s belly, cords attached to each arrow. As the arrows hit their marked, both men pulled, goring the Horror’s belly. The Horror screamed a much more human scream at that, a second grotesquely human one joining in as they tore open the swollen stomach. A worm like creature writhed inside the fleshy, screeching loud enough to drown out any sound made by her brother.

Bill’s eyes lit up at its sight, and he began running toward it.

“Mackerel! Sign, now!” He called. The older man tossed his crossbow, ripping the symbol of his chord and chucking it as hard as possible towards Bill. Bill had to step out of the way and leap for the symbol. He caught it, heading back toward the Horror.

Mabel watched as she got onto unsteady feet. Her brother needed her. He needed her now. She walked to him, watching the Horror all the while. Bill had sped toward the creature, the monster trying in vain to hit Bill with its many tentacles. Bill dodged past a few, the Stans both shooting arrow after arrow at the Horror’s head and limbs, keeping it as distracted as possible.

Bill jumped, symbol in hand, fist headed for the worm as it attempted to burrow deeper into the flesh of its host. Mabel heard a deafening screaming coming from the creature as she got to the operating table- it became her lifeline, her knees shaking, nausea overcoming her.

Mabel’s breathing was deep, her head pounding and cold sweat rippling over her skin. She could hear her heart beating intense against her sternum. She saw Dipper convulsing on the table, but couldn’t hear the screams she knew were coming out of his mouth. She looked up to see the other three men approach the table with her-

Bill was looking from Dipper to the men eyes on fire with concern and distress.

He was saying something- yelling something at them.

Stanford put his hand out, for a deal.

Stanley grabbed it.

Bill screamed and it cut through Mabel’s haze.

“Y̧͘O͡Ú́́ ͞F̸̨͡U̢C҉́K̸I̶NG ̕I̵D̵I͞O̴͘T̀͢ ́͞H̡͜U͘͝M͜͏AǸ̴!̀ ̴̨͝MA̕͠K̵É ̸́T̛̀̕H̕͝É̴ ̴D̡͠E̛͏A̕L ̸O҉͡R̀͠ HE'͢Ļ̛L ̵͢D̛͜͝I̡E!͏͞” Mabel teetered and caught herself trying to process what was happening, as Stanley fought both Stanford and Bill about something.

She had to get her brain to work. Stanley would listen to her.

Her breaths were so ragged.

She could her Bill’s desperation.

“Lee, make the deal…!” Mabel yelled weakly at him.

Silence from the three men.

Mabel saw Bill shaking hands with both twins simultaneously. Both twins grimaced in pain as Bill began to glow a deep cerulean. Mabel’s knees gave out under her. She saw Bill hug Dipper close to himself before she blinked and didn’t open her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay one chapter left! And who will be able to guess what's happened to Dipper? Also, nice job on those who figured out that little puzzle- I had something prior to that and then realized it was WAY too intricate (you had to take the last letter of the 3rd sentence, reverse it and you're golden) and yeah. I will say in future installments, cause there will be both extra side stories and a sequel, I'll add more puzzles and make them a bit more subtle ;3
> 
> First off, I'm SOOO sorry this chapter took so long. If you didn't see the edit comment on chapter 14, my pc 100% died on me so it's been a bit slow going. Finally FINALLY finished this chapter. Also, because there was such a delay, I tried to get it out asap, so it's not going to be the greatest in terms of quality, sorry! 
> 
> For those of you who are wanting for bamf!Dipper- just wait. You will get plenty in the future!
> 
> As for the future, I have a few things planned. There's going to be at least one sequel, possibly two. There's also going to be a couple of extra shorts like this chapter from Bill's perspective, what Stanley was doing while the first fic was happening- I have a lot planned, and although some of them might not make it in the long run, they'll definitely be plenty of stuff.
> 
> As always, thank you all so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!
> 
>  
> 
> For those of you curious about Bill's weapon, here's a [ link!](http://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/view/threaded_cane.gif/541069770/threaded_cane.gif) And [ another!](http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141128212016/bloodborne/images/a/a1/Transforming_Cane.png)


	16. Alive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so just a real quick note- I haven't edited this chapter at all, like, not even a speck. Just be forewarned- I will very soon be coming back and fixing it up, but it's a much longer chapter than usual and I've made ya'll wait for so long I figured I deliver it now so you guys didn't have to wait. Enjoy and sorry in advance about all the typos! >.

Everything hurt.

His arms hurt, his legs and back-

It felt like they’d been grindeD, smashed between coarse rocks, his bones cracking and his skin being ripped open. The ache of strain mix with bleeding, but-

Dipper heard a groan escape from his lips, and pushed the blanket off himself. It ached as it passed over his skin- it made him nauseous, a rolling in his stomach. He gasped in air turned on to his side and puked off the side of the familiar mattress. The jolting of his stomach shuddered through his body, tensing every muscle and he let out a faint groan and collapsed against the bed.

 

When he woke the second time, Dipper could think more clearly. He was in his bed. He was incredibly hyper-sensitive. He tried not to move. He was belly down in his bed. He moved very slightly and could feel wrappings on his back. He groaned, understanding now where his sensitivity was coming from. He felt nauseous again. He faintly remembered puking, but didn’t smell any vomit. It was dark in the room. He was alone in the quiet.

He was exhausted.

Dipper sighed, nuzzling lightly into the pillow to get himself more comfortable and it didn’t hurt too much to do so. He knew vaguely what had happened, and a spike of adrenaline rushed into his system- but then, so did thoughts of him currently. He was bandaged, in his creaky bed, in his creaky room.

The adrenaline surge, over fast, sent him quickly back into slumber.

 

There was an uncertain voice on the periphery of his mind that caused him to wake up next. He let out a groan, muscles still yelling at him as he moved around. His skin felt less sensitive than before, and although it was still painful to move for more than one reason, it was no longer sickening.

He opened his eyes.

He was in his bedroom, Bill’s blanket thrown over the window to keep out the light. With a grunt Dipper sat up, wincing. His back was still feeling raw, the bandages moving against his skin with the movement. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes, trying to wake up a bit more. He looked down, to the ground stretching his neck, and blindly reached for his phone. His hand brushed against a glass instead.

Looking up, he found a glass of water and three advil sitting with a note. He picked up the note, making note of his slightly shaking arm.

 

_‘Hey bro bro! <3_

_You’re probably feeling really junky right about now, so I gave you some medicine! We’re all downstairs, we had a super wicked slumber party so you could have space and sleep peacefully. Come down whenever you’re ready, we have your favorite foods made up and waiting! Also, Bill wants to add som- HIYA PINE TREE THIS WRITING THING IS WEIRD I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU SO YOU BETTER HURRY AND WAKE UP_

_Anyway Dipper love you lots, hope you slept well. Take your time with feeling better, but make sure you drink the whole glass of water okay?_

_-Mabel AND BILL_

 

Dipper huffed in amusement at the note shaking his head lightly. He grabbed the pills, popping them into his mouth and swallowing them with the water, drinking half the glass immediately.

He wasn’t sure if he was ready to go down or not yet. He didn’t want to face what happened, not again. And with how he was feeling it seemed like Doctor Turner actually succeeded.

Dipper could feel the roil of tears in the center of his chest, rising to escape. He angrily poked his back hard, and gasped in shock at the pain, the tears twisting into tears of pain. He wasn’t going to be sad over this. Whatever Turner did, she probably got rid of his magic. That would be a blessing.

And as much as he didn’t want to confront what happened, he did want to see his family and Bill again. Dipper wiped the tears away.

With a heavy sigh, Dipper rose from his bed flinching a bit as his legs protested. He ignored the pain, but would definitely take it easy on the steps.

He stepped down them like a toddler, both feet on one step. He heard voices from the living room, stopped as he creaked on his way down the steps. He finished them with a small breath of relief, turning to see his family plus Bill in the living room gathered around the tv.

Dipper smiled weakly at them, each of them smiling back except for Bill. He inwardly cringed- everyone’s posture was tense and on edge, their smiles weak and strained, except for Bill’s whose mouth was so wide Dipper almost make a joke about the joker.

“Dipper!”

“Pine Tree!”

Dipper laughed as both jumped up and started running toward him before Bill latched onto Mabel’s arm.

“Wait we have to be gentle.” He said giving Mabel a serious look.

“Oh yeah, that’s true it-wah!” She cried out getting pulled down onto her butt as Bill raced over and literally jumped at him. Dipper cried out, hesitating to dodge out of the way. He braced himself just as Bill collided with him. Dipper grunted with the effort to keep Bill up without using his arms much, taking a step back. Bill somehow managed to dodge his bandages as Dipper’s grasped under his butt, making sure not to touch Bill with his hypersensitive arms.

“Bill!” Mabel cried out, a look of horror on her face.

Bill turned a blew a raspberry at her.

“I told you he would be able to lift me fine!” Bill said. The two of them made a variety of faces at each other before Dipper sighed, exasperated. Without warning, Dipper dropped his arms and leaned over. Bill crashed to the floor with no resistance, laughing hysterically from the ground.

“I think he likes me!” He let out from the floor as Dipper entered the room. He put a hand out for his twin as Bill stretched out on the floor. Both Stans came up to him, the hesitant smiles still there, but less strained.

“Good to see you’re up, Dipper.” Stanley said. He patted the man on the shoulder gently.

“Really kid, it’s you had us worried.” Stanford agreed, coming to stand by his twin in front of Dipper.

Dipper smiled at the both of them, Stanley returning his arm to his side.

“How long was I out?” Dipper asked.

The Stans looked at each other before Stanley turned back to him.

“...Look, Dipper-”

“No no no!” Mabel yelled running up to Dipper’s side, “None of that talk until my brother gets something to eat!”

Dipper gave her an odd look, shooting a glance at the Stans. They were looking between them, Standford with surprise, Stanley with pity. Dipper sighed- he wasn’t up for this. He just- he was going to follow Mabel for now.

“Yeah, and I still have to give you that present!” Bill said, finally standing.

Dipper smiled at the two of them.

“Alright then. Is everything just in the kitchen?” Dipper asked, while Mabel and Bill grabbed his arms, pulling him towards it.

“You bet it it! We made a ton of food, though we had to refrigerate most of it!” Mabel said, leading the charge, “Bill even...helped!”

“You bet I did!” Bill said with a laugh. Dipper knew that laugh- he’d certainly done something. Dipper was certain it was the very opposite of help.

Mabel had not been lying in her note. She had made every single one of his favorite foods- brown sugar pecan pancakes, bacon-bacon burgers, curly fries, that crazy salad from Potera he liked with the cranberries. She’d made it all from scratch to.

On Mabel’s suggestion, they took all of it and picnicked outside. The Stans joined them after a short while, the three of them already digging into the food. They did their best to pretend like nothing happened, Dipper following Bill and Mabel’s lead.

“Oh! You know, Pacifica is supposed to get some time off pretty soon!” Mabel said, looking over to her brother, “We should invite her over, introduce her to Bill!”

“Hehe, I think you mean reintroduce!” Bill said with a grin.

“Y-yeah. Reintroduce. Right.” Mabel said, flinching a bit.

“I didn’t think she was due for leave. Didn’t she just get some like, a couple months back?” Dipper asked.

Mabel rolled her eyes at him with a grin.

“Puh-lease Dipper. We both know Paz’s schedule.”

“Or lack there of.” Dipper agreed with a nod. “Wait, how’d you even find out?”

Mabel’s wide grew wide and nervous.

“Well, would you look at that, my 5 potato-potato salad came out fantastic! Who would have thought! Especially after Bill used the first batch to build an alarm clock.” Mabel said shooting the man a small glare.

“Hey, I thought we wanted Pine Tree up. Besides, then he could eat it, isn’t that the point of food?”

“Mabel.” Dipper said, giving her a stern look. She sighed looking down trodden. “What have I told you about that?”

“Only to use the Looking Glasses is it’s an emergency.” Mabel said. Dipper chuckled giving her a light punch on the arm. He wasn’t too mad about it- how the hell could he be after everything? But he still wanted to tease her about it.

A shudder ripped through him as his hand collided lightly with Mabel’s arm- something

Something just moved in his arm. Something under the skin of his arm just moved.

“Dipper?” Mabel’s voice woke him from his realization. “Dipper I’m really sorry I know you said we shouldn’t, but I just really really missed Paz and with you and Bill getting so close-”

“Mabel- you’re fine really, I was just spacing out.” Dipper said with a smile.

“Are you sure? You’re face was all like- Bleh!” Mabel said, making a face at him.

Dipper laughed.

“No, it was more like this Shooting Star!” Bill joined in, also mimicking Dipper’s supposed look.

“Hey shut up I totally didn’t look like that!” Dipper said, playfully shoving them and laughing. Went his hands collided with them though, he felt the same wiggling under the bandages of his arm. He felt the blood drain from his face, but shoved any emotions of apprehension from his face.

“S-so when did she say she was coming in?” Dipper asked.

Mabel shrugged turning back to her food.

“I’m not sure. All she said was near in the future.”

Dipper hummed in contemplation for a moment.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Llama Hair! What’s she like nowadays?”

“Well-”

“Nah, don’t tell me! Don’t want to ruin the surprise!” Bill said. Dipper deflated, shaking his head.

“Oh of course not. We wouldn’t want that, would we?” Dipper quipped with a cheeky smile.

“Well like I always say, Pine Tree! The best kind of prize, is a surprise!”

Dipper was hit with a wave of nostalgia and he looked at Bill. The demon was grinning at his around a pancake, hands and face insanely sticky. He scooted just a bit closer, so their thighs were touching, Bills smile twitching in place a moment. He didn’t move away.

Dipper looked back out into the forest around them, breathing in deeply and content.

 

They stayed outside for a long while, talking and enjoying each others company with the occasionally rough housing and chase around the Shack. So called rough housing for Dipper, typically consisted of Bill picking Dipper careful not to touch his sensitive areas and carting him around while chasing Mabel.

They went inside when the bugs got particularly bad around sunset. Dipper was exhausted anyway- and he was certain that if Bill did anything else with him and Mabel, the Stans were going to go into conniptions. Both had only barely joined them for their picnic, staying off to the side watching as everything occurred. Many times Dipper looked to see their jaws tightly clenched, eyes narrowed, with deep set frowns and sharply pointed eyebrows.

They’d left the three of them alone after the first few hours of being outside, taking vigilance from the kitchen- at least, Grunkle Lee would.

Now inside, Dipper crawled into bed, limbs slightly pulsing with ache. He should have probably taken it easy, but he’d needed the fun.

Now came the hard part.

Dipper didn’t know just what exactly was going on with his body, but he knew something was definitely wrong. He had felt something in his body, wiggling and sliding around just under the skin. It was especially bad where his arms were bandaged and it made him worry to look under them.

But whatever happened while he was unconscious at the cultist’s home- he needed to face it. Dipper had put it off for the entire day, not able to confront the idea that he was yet again strained for his blood for some perverse ritual. This time, though, it seemed that the ritual had succeeded, at least in part.

So Dipper sat on his bed with Bill and Mabel on the opposite side. He had told them he it was time to talk about this when they came inside and he was going to stick with this no matter what happened. He couldn’t back down. He was so tired of backing down.

The other two were tense and serious, both with deep frowns on their faces. It wasn’t a good sign.

“What happened?” Was all Dipper was able to scratch out. The other two sat incredibly still, only moving their heads to look at each other. There was a silent conversation going on, one Dipper could potentially follow, but chose not to, instead looking at the ground. He waited for them to speak.

Dipper looked up as Bill spoke first.

“Members of a cult- The Cult of The Unspeakable One- were attempting to use you as a conduit.” Bill said quietly. “They worship an extra-planar being. Kind of like an alien.” Bill clarified for Mabel, “Dipper these beings...they aren’t things to be trifled with, and the ‘magic’ they give their followers is incredibly strong.”

Dipper was paling at Bill’s serious demeanor. It was so uniquely out of character for him. He looked...mildly worried. His stomach was about into the floor.

“I mean even the reason they call their ‘God’ the Unspeakable One is because saying his real name invites his presence directly into you. That’s an incredible amount of power. I mean, he’s got nothing on me!” Bill tried to joke, the effect falling flat.

“But it’s still something we need to be weary of?” Dipper finished for the demon. Bill nodded, flinching as Mabel dug her hands into Bill’s arm.

“Did- did you call this thing a god?! How in the world can we be weary of a god?! Bill, how could you not have mentioned that before?!”

Bill sighed, patting Mabel on the head. He smiled devilishly at her, though the corners didn’t reach his eyes like normal, and his brow was still heavy set.

“You should remember Shooting Star- I was worshipped as a God as well once upon a time.” That did alleviate some of the chaos in Dipper’s gut. “Besides, we don’t have to be weary of the Being itself showing up- its followers might be a problem, but I highly doubt that. Cultists are an easily spooked bunch. With this group dead, not many more are going to stick around I suspect.”

Dipper let out a sigh of relief.

“Besides, if there are any more- as I already proved, I can deal with them incredibly efficiently.” This time Bill’s grin did reach his eyes.

He had to admit, Bill had a way of assuaging his fears. Even if it was a bit...unconventional.

“So about what this cult was doing. You mentioned they were trying to use me as a conduit?” Dipper asked.

Both Mabel and Bill stiffened again. They looked at one another, and this time Dipper continued looking up. They were debating on who was going to tell him.

“As- as far as we know, bro bro,” Mabel said, starting the new topic of conversation, “they were trying to turn you into this- thing, that would allow them to communicate more directly with their...with the thing they worshipped.”

“They can’t even say Its name aloud for fear of being driven insane or worse. They were attempting to use your magic to turn you into a beast that would allow them to do so.” Bill said.

“Yeah, there was something about- ‘letting you fill their brain with eyes’ or something it was weird and freaky.” Mabel said, giving out a shutter. She hugged herself tightly, moving just a bit closer to Bill.

Bill nodded in agreement with her.

“The- Thing, they were planning on turning you into would be similar to their Patron. The ritual she was using was shown to her by the Patron through one of his ‘holy texts.’ Because you are- were, so magically gifted she could use your power to start the ritual, then feed in the power of her Patron. This power would fuse with your own and magnify it to extreme degrees.” Bill paused in his description. He was glaring deeply, hair and eyes beginning to tinge red as he worked himself up.

“Just- just take a deep breath Bill.” Dipper said, attempting to calm the man. Bill did just that holding it in for a moment. He let it out, getting a small bump from Mabel as well as a tiny, playful smile. He smiled back, before turning towards Dipper.

“Anyways, I stopped the ritual from being completed. I had to make a deal with your dumb Uncles to borrow their more human energy. When I dispelled the ritual though you’re magic had already bound with ritual magic. So when I dispelled the ritual magic-”

“Mine went with it.” Dipper said. He lungs ached, short of breath. He mind raced. He put up a hand to stop Bill from continuing.

“Just-I just need a quick-” Dipper said.

Both parties from the other bed stood with concern. Dipper put his head between his legs.

His magic was...gone. He no longer had the potential to do- to do anything with it. He thought he’d feel different, like a piece of him was missing. But he didn’t feel any different from normal save his aching body.

His magic was gone.

It was gone.

He couldn’t believe it.

This thing that had pained him, plagued him for years, was finally out of his life, and with it the chance of being one of the greatest magic users the world had ever seen. He didn’t know whether he wanted to cry in joy or sorrow.

He settled to hyper-ventilating between his legs.

“Dipper- Dipper you have to calm down, you’re going to go into a panic attack.” Mabel said, hand gingerly on one shoulder.

He couldn’t slow his breathing. It was gone. A piece of him was gone literally forever, a piece he could never get back. A piece he had wanted desperately to learn and have prosper, but was always too afraid of the potential consequences to go about learning. And now he would never get the chance to even try. And he was almost happy about it. What the fuck had his life become if losing such an amazing gift was a blessing?

“Pine Tree- look at me.” Bill commanded. Dipper raised his head just slightly, looking through his bangs at Bill. Bill grabbed his face lightly, thumbs rubbing smooth circles into his temples. Dipper felt himself calming almost instantly, dropping his limbs in exhaustion as his almost panic attack subsided. He had clenched his already sore muscles so tightly. He felt himself slipping into unconsciousness.

Dipper’s eyes shot opening as he bolted awake ripping his head from Bill's grasp. As adrenaline coursed through his body, his felt the now almost familiar wiggling around various parts of his body.

“Pine Tree!” Bill shouted. Dipper snapped towards the sound of the man’s voice. He stared at Bill’s face a moment- before he picked up on the things around him. He was in his room, in the Mystery Shack. Mabel and Bill were sitting across from him, Mabel wringing her sweater, Bill staring at him intently.

He was safe.

“I- you used your magic on me?” Dipper asked, still getting his bearings.

“Trust me, you needed it.” Bill said.

“You were going into a panic attack.” Mabel agreed, “He put you to sleep and then quickly woke you. You weren't out for more than a few minutes.”

Dipper nodded, actively keeping his breathing even.

Crazy cultists were after him.

His magic was gone.

It was okay- everything was okay.

He was alive.

Dipper took in a huge breath, letting it out just as slowly, keeping his pulse as controlled as possible.

“Okay. So-” Dipper started, having to clear his throat as it went scratchy, “So their ritual- it- I mean, I’m not- it didn’t-”

Mabel leaned over, grasping both of Dipper’s hands in her own. She looked so crestfallen, and her voice shook as she spoke.

“J-just- just don’t be too upset, okay? Give it- give it sometime to sink in and- try not to freak out too much?” Mabel asked. Dipper swallowed and nodded.

Bill stood up, kneeling in front of Dipper. His face was carefully schooled of any emotions.

“Close your eyes, Pine Tree.” Bill said. Dipper looked at him for a moment, his stomach fluttering at Bill’s serious expression. He shut his eyes.

He felt Bill’s hands against his skin. They worked at the fabric on his forearm gently, making sure not to pull or tug too hard. Dipper concentrated on keeping his breathing as steady as possible. Whatever was going on, he knew it was beyond bad. It was irrevocable levels of fucked up. But he was alive. Bill was alive, Mabel as alive. He tensed as he felt the last of the cloth fall away.

There was a brief pause in the room. Silence reverberated outward with the last flutter of unwrapped gauze fell to the floor. Dipper kept his eyes mashed shut, waiting for Bill’s command to open them. Bill held his bare forearm, fingers barely touching the limb, ghosting over the skin, not wanting to aggravate the hypersensitivity there.

“...go ahead and open your eyes Pine Tree.”

With a deep shaking breath, and an almost whimper, Dipper opened his eyes.

The first thing Dipper noticed was his forearm was ever so slightly swollen. He perked his head at it slightly, because that just wasn’t the right description of it. It wasn’t just swollen, because it was only swollen about two-thirds of the way up from his elbow. It was as if he had just the slightest of bumps under skin, and he frowned and squinted at the limb- it almost didn’t feel like he was seeing it correctly.

He squeezed Mabel’s hand before gently urging her to release it. She clung to him for a bit, but eventually let go. Dipper in turn moved his hand to the section of his arm. He gently brushed over it- and shivered in subtle pain. It was definitely the area that was causing him pain. But it didn’t feel like normal inflammation.

Dipper inhaled another stuttering breath- he had an idea where this was going. And yet he doubted every new idea that came into his head. He bided his time, letting his natural curiosity turn into the courage to explore this new thing.

Dipper lapped a finger around the swollen skin, getting used to the minor pain of the sensitive area. He pressed in harder, trying to gauge the skin’s pliability and flinched in pain. It almost felt- hard? But more like muscle tissue than bone. He continued prodding a bit, flinching in pain with every poke.

It was both comforting and unnerving to have Bill and Mabel with him, staring at him in silence. These were two of the loudest people he knew, and although it put him at ease that they were with him, they were acting so out of character for themselves. It added a kind of surrealism to the whole ordeal.

A more solid poke to the bottom right-hand side of one swollen area had him out right gasping in pain- and crying out in surprise.

Out of his forearm, an incredibly slimy- appendage stuck out about two inches.

Dipper groaned in pain as the thing hit the air for the first time and- and he could feel the coolness of the air against it it was- it was like exposing too much of the underside of a fingernail, sharp with a slight burn. The wetness of the- thing- only made the pain worse, drawing attention to it.

He took in a hissing breath, unable to break his eyes away. In the most morbid of ways it was- fascinating! He could feel shifting of muscle underneath where his finger pressed, and he pulled down, the appendage retreating immediately. Looking where the thing had gone, Dipper saw a very thin crease in his arm, mostly covered by his arm hair. He very gently pressed the muscle forward with his finger, hissing in pain as the crease opened, the tip of the appendage peaking outward. He could see the definite reflection of copious amounts of something viscous.

“Fuck.” Dipper said, pulling the appendage back inside. Neither Bill nor Mabel reacted. Dipper looked up to them.“A- a l-little reassurance would be nice here guys!”

Mabel jumped into it first, squeezing the hand she was still holding onto.

“It’s- it’s not that bad really Dipper. I mean, you still almost exactly the same! You just- have a few extra bits now!” Mabel said, trying to fake enthusiasm. Somehow it both hurt and helped.

“Pine Tree.” Dipper gave the man his attention, “If you lost a leg, or lost an arm, you wouldn’t be any different, right?”

No, Dipper supposed not. He’d be incredibly upset, he’d done his research into loss of limbs and the psychological ramifications weren’t pleasant. But, in the end, no, he’d be the same as always. He shook his head.

“Then adding limbs is almost better in a way. Cause he! you’re a better human!” Bill said, a smile starting to crack under his serious countenance.

Mabel gasped at this revelation.

“Oh my god, Dipper! You’re a superhero now!” Dipper couldn’t help a slow grin spreading onto his face.

“Whoa there Shooting Star, I wouldn’t go that far!” Bill said, before grinning at Dipper wickedly, “I mean, would he even fit into tights? He’s just so bulky.”

Dipper laughed his eyes starting to water up. These two- how he’d gotten so lucky with his twin- and how Bill had become such a presence in his life, Dipper had no idea but…

“Well, duh! Did you ever see Z-Men? Behemoth was like- twice as big as him. Though now that you mention size, Dipper is kinda of short for a super hero…” Mabel said rubbing her chin and squinting her eyes in thought.

Dipper let out another choked round of laughter, “I’m not sure whether to poke you for making fun of my height, or high-five you for actually remembering something from my comics.”

Mabel groaned in tease, “Do you how many episodes we had to watch of that stupid show as kids?”

Dipper sent a watery grin to his sister. Mabel laughed, her own face starting to scrunch as tears fell from her eyes. She hugged Dipper around the neck, and he burrowed his face to her stomach and let out a sob. He felt Bill join into the hug- if wrapping one arm around his shoulder and one leg around Mabel’s waist was joining in on the hug. He felt another laugh bubble out of him through the tears, Mabel’s own shaking laughter vibrating into his face from her stomach.

They stayed there for a while, no long crying but in need of physical comfort. No one spoke, just calmly enjoying each other’s company. Mabel was the first one to step away, wiping her face with her hands and sniffling. Dipper joined her in the sniffling. Bill, having not moved his leg, fell down to the floor face first when Mabel moved away. It made them both chuckle.

“Bill, seriously?” Dipper asked with a small smile. He sighed, his mind and body calmed, but very drained.

“Hey, Pine Tree, I’m not the one who suddenly moved away.” Bill pouted getting up from the floor. Dipper patted the spot next to him, Mabel having already taken his other side. Bill huffed, but sat down.

“Sooooooo Dip-dop,” Mabel said with a suspicious roll of her eyes, “Now that that’s unwrapped, why don’t we try it out?”

“Yeah Pine Tree! We haven’t even really gotten to see what it looks like!” Bill chimed in, taking the offered seat.

Dipper felt a nervous rush pass through him.

“I- I dunno guys, this is all a bit…” Dipper trailed off, not even sure what word he was looking for. Fast? Crazy?

Fascinating?

“Awww, come on Pine Tree, don’t be a killjoy! I’m the only one here allowed to kill things!” Bill said, poking his bicep. Mabel egged him on as well.

“Yeah, Dipper, pleasssssssssse?” She pouted at him.

“Jeez, okay okay!” Dipper huffed. Both of them threw up their arms with a yay. How they were so weirdly in sync sometimes- it was certainly one mystery he wouldn’t ever discover. With a deep breath, knowing that this was going to be very painful, Dipper lifted up his arm, pushing against the muscle with his finger. The appendage came out on its own at a steady pace, and he hissed at the burning- not as bad as last time but still definitely there.

It moved out slowly, an inch every couple seconds, staying place extended. It was-

It was a tentacle.

He seriously had tentacles growing out of him now.

Dipper shouldn’t have been surprised, yet here he was.

The tentacle extended a foot- two feet- suspended in mid air on its own. Dipper shuddered, and not just in pain- being able to feel the tentacle was so beyond incredibly weird, to feel the air cooling the sticky substance that coated the whole thing.

The tentacle itself was a texture similar to skin, though seemed a bit thicker- or maybe ever-so slightly more rubbery. It was a consistent size down the entire length- about three inches in diameter until it reached close to the tip, which tapered down into a rounded end, still a good inch in diameter. It was an odd fleshy tan color, much different than Dipper’s own paleness. It arched slightly as it came out of his arm, holding its own weight. Dipper was breathing heavily when it reached the wall, his breathing ragged and labored from the pain of the limb.

“Woah…” Mabel said looking at the tentacle.

“Okay, I definitely need a break.” Dipper said, reaching up and wiping his forehead of sweat. He pressed down on the muscle, retracting the tentacle, a little bit quicker than how he extended it. He sighed in relief when it was finally back in his body, his breathing still ragged, but slowly returning to normal.

“Just think, if this whole running the Mystery Shack thing doesn’t work out, you’ll bit a hit in Japan.” Dipper blushed immediately, smacking at his sister.

“Mabel!”

Bill frowned.

“What does Japan have to do with anything?” Bill asked, question positioned to Mabel. She grinned wickedly.

“Well you see, since the 1810’s with the painting ‘The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife-’”

“Mabel!!” Dipper said, face a scarlet hue. The damage was already done however.

Bill mirrored Mabel’s grin, pointing it towards Dipper.

“You know Mabel, he wouldn’t have to go to Japan either. Don’t they have websites for this kinda thing?”

“Seriously you guys?!” Dipper groaned and fell back against the bed, snagging one of his pillows and putting it over his face. He could feel the blush creeping to his ears and down his neck.

Bill and Mabel let out one last sounded laugh before Dipper felt Mabel pat his knee.

“Alright, get some sleep bro-bro. We can try out your superpowers tomorrow.” Mabel said. Dipper peeked out from his pillow to see an understanding smile on her face. He returned it with a nod.

“Sounds good, Mabel.”

She nodded.

“Have a good night Dipper, and you as well Bill!”

“Sleep tight, Shooting Star! Don’t let the nightmares bite!”

“Night, Mabel.”

Mabel flashed them one last grin before heading out, shutting the door softly on her way out.

Which left just Bill and Dipper together. He sat up.

Dipper hadn’t gotten the time to process everything that happened with them- or his feelings about it. Bill was staring at him from his side of the room.

It made Dipper’s stomach flip just a little. His heartbeat quickened.

He needed to distract himself.

“Soooooo...Bill. What exactly happened?”

Bill frowned for just a moment, before grinning and standing up.

“Well, Pine Tree, we got there, they were going all transformy on us, I pulled out someone’s spine- oh! That reminds me, your gift!”

What!?

“Wait, Bill hold one- you pulled out someone’s-”

He waved his hand at Dipper, digging under his bed for something.

“Yeah, you know, unhook the bottom vertebrae, be careful of the Trapezius, the usual.”

Dipper did not know how to respond to that and remained silent until Bill, with a small ‘ah-ha!’ brought something wrapped in cloth over to him.

“What...is it?” Dipper asked, suddenly feeling quite a bit of dread. Bill rolled his eyes.

“Just unwrap it Pine Tree.”

“Bill, I swear is this is a piece of that- thing’s- spine I’m-”

“Would you just unwrap it!?”

Dipper sighed, before starting to undo the cloth. Whatever it was, it was small- it had to be smaller than his palm. Fuck, if this was a vertebrae he was going to pissed. With a giant rock of trepidation in his gut, Dipper moved that last piece of fabric.

He cocked his head to the side in slight confusion.

It was an amulet.

Instinctively, he reached for his neck. He hadn’t noticed before, but the other necklace Bill gave him was gone. As Dipper opened his mouth to ask, Bill answered the question before Dipper could ask.

“The cult got rid of it.” Bill said with a seething glare. “I hope it’s okay.” He said this with an additional frown and looked...nervous and expectant. Dipper spared him one last glance, before looking down at it.

It was a piece of...he wasn’t quite sure. Something yellow and smooth and hard. It was almost stone like, but much less dense. It was a bit bigger than a quarter and about as thick as two. There was- a triangle and eye carved into the face, stretching to the edges of the amulet. On instinct he flipped it over to find- a simple pine tree motif. Dipper grinned and chuckled a bit, his stomach doing an odd flip. On the top of the amulet a small hole was threaded with leather cord.

“Bill, this is-” Dipper started, then he saw the man. Dipper paused briefly because Bill looked...incredibly on edge. Not only that, he seemed to be intensely almost...in need of Dipper’s approval. A wave of nervousness shot through him.

It was almost as if…

Dipper knew Bill was feeling more emotions currently, more than a demon should but…

He’d have to test this. He hoped his nerves survived this.

“Um- Bill. Do you mind helping me put it on real quick? I’m not great with uh...this kind of clasp.”  Dipper said.

“Pffft, humans!” Bill said with a laugh. He got up, gently taking the amulet from Dipper. He wrapped it around Dipper’s neck, the triangle side facing outward. Bill struggled for just a moment with the clasp, before it snagged into place. Dipper heard his heartbeat roaring in his ears at Bill’s close proximity. Bill moved back with his normal grin before noticing just how close Dipper’s face was to his own.

Dipper would have said it was hilarious watching Bill’s face cycle through various emotions- but he was pretty certain his face was doing the same. The man was handsome, a thin and long face, arching cheekbones, and a thin jaw by prominent jaw line. He felt his face on fire and he couldn’t help grinning at the other man.

Bill’s eyes widened. The next thing Dipper knew Bill’s hands were on his face. Specifically, Bill had managed to put fingers in both his nostrils and his ears, and propped his chin on top of Dipper’s head. Dipper was stunned for a moment before he let out a chuckle. He wrapped his own arms around Bill’s waist, the man standing over him still.

They hung there a moment not speaking, enjoying each other’s- embrace? Each other’s company. Yeah, that worked better.

“We should really talk about this.” Dipper said quietly. He felt Bill huff against his hair.

“Can we just do it later?” Bill asked. Dipper let out a small sigh, but nodded slightly.

“Yeah, of course Bill.” He felt Bill tighten his fingers slightly.

“You really had me worried, Pine Tree.” Bill said quietly. Dipper’s gut 180’d and he felt his face heat up immensely.

“I-I’ll try my best not to- in the future.” Dipper got out. It was hard for him to think. Bill moved away from Dipper’s hair to come face to face with him. Bill was maybe an inch from Dipper’s face, eyes locked with Dipper’s.

“You’d better.” Dipper stopped breathing for a moment, heat rushing downward and pooling in his tumultuous innards. Bill stayed there for another moment before flashing his genuine smile and unhooking from Dipper’s nose and ears.

“Get some sleep Pine Tree.” Bill said, turning around. He started shucking his shirt off and before Dipper could stop himself, spoke up.

“Could we sleep together?” he blurted out. Bill stopped for a moment, shirt still half off before turning, grinning devilishly. Then Dipper realized just how that sounded.

“Well, Pine Tree, you’re being awfully forward.” Dipper pushed the pillow back to his face. This was new levels of embarrassment. This was not happening.

“That’s not what I meant just- ugh nevermind, I’m going to go bury myself out in the yard.” He felt a pat on his head, edging his eyes over the top of the pillow, Bill was looking down at him, laughing quietly.

“Geez, you embarrass so easily Pine Tree. Aren’t you the one with all the experience with this kind of thing?”

Well, yeah, that was true.

“Sure Pine Tree, that sounds fine.” Bill said. He turned back to his things, finishing taking off his shirt and Dipper turned away, face still alight. He hopped up, going to his own things. He quickly shuffled into pajama pants and an old t-shirt. When he turned around Bill was lying on his bed in only a pair of neon yellow briefs and those stupid thigh highs he wore every night to bed.

Dipper was not going to survive the night.

“Scoot.” He said turning off the light. Bill complied, scooting over to give Dipper room to hop into bed. Dipper lied down next to Bill on his stomach, the other man shifting so he was actually lying down and now lounging like the very attractive tool he was.

They laid there awkwardly, neither of them moving around, shoulders just barely touching. Dipper had a small bed, and briefly realized this was probably not thought out well. They should have gotten the other bed, he realized with a small sense of humiliation amongst still roiling stomach and how had his nerves not been this on edge when he was in that stupid room with Doctor Turner? This was Bill and Bill clearly liked him in a romantic sense, Dipper needed to stop being so weirdly nervous and just-

“I don’t know what I’m suppose to do.” Bill said quietly. Dipper craned his head to the side, looking at Bill in the darkness. The man was looking incredibly unsure of himself, staring up at the ceiling.

Dipper sighed.

“Yeah, sorry I- didn’t really think this through. I can’t really sleep on my side and I should have- nevermind, just- here.” Dipper took Bill’s arm, gently guiding the other man onto his side. He put Bill’s arm around his lower back and the man immediately took his lead, scooting in closer almost nude body flush against Dipper’s side.

Dipper was just settling in when he felt Bill’s hand trail under his shirt, coming to rest on in the same place as before, but now with no shirt between their skin. A wave of heat shot through Dipper from the contact and he shivered lightly.

“Should I still put you to sleep?” Bill asked. Dipper swallowed heavily, already feeling himself start to harden against his bed. He licked his lips.

“Yeah, it might be a good idea.” Dipper admitted. In response, Bill’s hand left Dipper’s back to trail into Dipper’s hair, gently rubbing against his scalp. He could feel bits of the magic seep into him when he moved his own arm over to Bill, shifting his angle so he was facing toward the man. He wrapped his arm under Bill’s own hugging the man to his side.

“Have a good night Bill, sleep well and sweet dreams.”

“Sweet dreams, Pine Tree. I’ll be here when you wake up.” Bill said. With one last smiling breath, Dipper closed his eyes and let Bill’s fingers and magic massage him into slumber.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the first part is finally written. I'm so so sorry this took so long, my computer died, and I only actually got it working this past week. And tbh it's only kind of working. Not really sure what to say other than WOO YEAH! Also hurray for Tentacle!Dipper! That wasn't even my intent when I started this it just kinda happened but so what if I have to completely re-write the plans I have for sequels, Dipper is tentacle-y now. Anyway, comment let me know what you guys think! Hope you enjoyed and I can't wait to get started on the sequel and one shots!


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